My Only One
by AnUnluckyCharm
Summary: Bella get's the trip of a lifetime from her parents as an early birthday present; a trip to England all by herself for a summer. As she's out shopping, she litteraly stumbles across a very hot Britsh man that goes by the name Edward. They know they only have the summer, but nothing's stopping them. No secrets will get in the way of this one, or so they hope.
1. And We Danced

"Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!" My mother smiled as she handed me a skinny, white envelope.

It was the morning of the last day of my junior year at high school. And it was definitely not my birthday.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, staring grumpily at the little envelope still in my mother's hand. It was 6:30 in the morning and half an hour before she usually woke me up. "And why are you waking me up this early?"

"I know it's not your birthday, but your father and I decided that we would give this to you now, because it would be too late if we gave it to you on your actual birthday, in September." She smiled and waved the envelope a little bit, making it clear that she wanted me to take it from her.

"Well, okay then." I responded, confused. I grabbed it from her and slid my finger under the flap that glued it shut. Inside the envelope was a folded, white sheet of paper, obviously something printed out. I read it a little bit to see if I could figure out what it was.

It was a receipt. It was a receipt for plane tickets.

"What ..?" I asked. I couldn't find a place on it, and I was started to freak out a little bit.

"You know how you've always wanted to go to London?" My mother smiled wide.

_Oh no she did not._

"Oh my God, no!" I shouted out in absolute disbelief. But she confirmed it by nodded her head and smiling like crazy.

I jumped out of bed and started jumping around like a maniac, screaming. "OMG, no way. I can't believe this. I _cannot believe _this. Am I actually going to London?"

She smiled and nodded her head. "Yes!"

I grabbed onto her hands and we jumped around together. After we were both breathing heavily from bouncing, I pulled her into a huge hug. I was taller than her, so I easily wrapped my arms around her shoulder and her head rested on my neck.

"Thank you so, _so_ much. How long am I going to be there?"

"The whole summer." She responded.

"Oh God, this is going to be amazing." I breathed.

xoxoxox

"You're going where?" My best friend, Rosalie, shouted.

"England! I'm going to England!" I exclaimed.

It was just before first period, and we were outside waiting for the bell to ring. As soon as I pulled into the school, I rushed towards her and told her the news. Our loud voices were gaining attention from some of the other students, but that was the last thing on our minds right now.

"I can't believe it, you're so lucky!"

"I know, I can't believe it!" I've wanted to go to London since I was 4 years young. My mom went there with a few people from her work because she had the air miles when I was that age, and didn't take me. When she came back, she came with gifts and talked about the magnificence of London, England. She mimicked their accents, made me tea she bought there, and she talked about the plays she saw and people she met. I might have been young, but I knew that I would find my way to get to London to experience it the same way my mother did and she promised me she would help.

"Well, believe it Bella. You're leaving tomorrow morning so that means that we have less than 24 hours to go shopping and get you everything you need. That means that in less than 48 hours you'll be surrounded by people with British accents." She teased.

Rosalie had been my best friend since the first grade when another girl, Lauren, who we still despised, stole my box of crayons and she went over to her and stole them back for me. We then became even closer in the second grade when Mike, a guy who's still really annoying to me, pulled on both of Rose's pigtails_, at the same time,_ and I stepped on his toes as a result and made him cry.

I always felt slightly less significant because Rose was beautiful. With her long blonde hair, glowing skin and piercing blue eyes, she was well known in the local Forks High School. But what was so amazing about her, was that she was just as amazing on the inside as she was on the out. She was smart, responsible, and very kind. This is how she managed to get the attention from Emmett, the quarterback of our football team, and kept it. They've been dating for the past year and a half.

"Well, it's a half day," I agreed. "So we can shop after the days over and we get our report cards."

"Sounds good." She smiled and we walked inside together when the bell rang.

I never really understood why Rose stayed friends with me. She was gorgeous, popular, and smart and had the captain of the football team wrapped around her little finger. Everyone in our small town of Forks knew of her. She could be friends with anyone she wanted, which is why I didn't understand it.

If it weren't for me being close with Rose, I'd be a loser. I was awkward, I don't like socializing, I volunteer more than I party, swimming is the only thing, other than music, that can really calm me down and I'd rather spend my days in my room, alone or with Rose, marathoning old Friends episodes, Harry Potter movies or How I Met Your Mother shows, all while being on Tumblr. Music is the only way I can handle being at school. I'm short, with really curly brown hair and brown eyes. I've only had one boyfriend, and that ended after a month near the end of grade 10 when he got a girl from Seattle pregnant.

I was the exact opposite of Rosalie.

As Rose and I parted ways, so that she could walk to her class with Emmett, I slouched my shoulders a bit, put on the hood of my black Blink 182 hoodie, blasted my music and made my way to class.

People didn't really know what to think of me. My only true friends were Rose, Emmett and Rose's twin brother Jasper. Other female friends of Rose tried to interact with me sometimes, but I could read them better than they could give a blowjob. They were only trying to get close to be so that they could befriend Rose better, and have a one-way ticket to "popularity".

I sometimes tried to be polite, but I couldn't help it most of the time. When someone asks me a stupid question, I feel obligated to give a smart ass response. I was a sarcastic asshole, who would rather listen to music than talk to 99% of the people at school.

People usually steer clear of me, but sometimes I'm in a good mood and at those times I can actually tolerate people. This is what mainly confused others. They never knew if I was in a talking mood, or a leave-me-the-hell-alone mood. Much to my pleasing, people usually left me alone because of this.

"Hey Bella!" I heard a familiar voice scream from behind me.

Or should I say, _most people_ left me alone.

Mike Newton has had an annoyingly big crush on me ever since the second grade when I stepped on his feet, defending Rose's honor. He followed me around, ignored my glares and rude remarks, and was an all around likable guy by most of the student body. I, of course, hated him.

Without looking at him, I pushed the button on the side of my phone in my pocket to turn up the volume. I was in a good mood right now, because of London and that it was the last day of school, but Mike always managed to attract the worst sides of me.

I was listening to Sleeping With Sirens, and it was at a slower part of the song, so I could still hear him slightly from behind me. And he was gaining on me. Luckily, I arrived at my class, so I made a quick turn to the right and walked to my chair.

I took my phone out of my pocket to turn off the music once I sat down, and then I just sat there waiting for the class to officially start.

"Hey," I heard from beside me.

In our school, there was a group of 5 girls who were, in my opinion, huge bitches, but were still fairly popular in our tiny populated school. There was Melissa, Ashley, Brittney, Kylie and, the one who greeted me, Spencer. When they were all together, the girls annoyed the shit out of me. But Spencer was the only one from that group in any of my classes, and I realised that when you were only talking to her, when she wasn't with all of her friends, she was a pretty decent person.

"Hey Spence." I said back.

We were in no way close. In fact, we preferred if our little interactions remained only in the classroom, but I could tolerate her regardless of my mood, which was fairly rare.

"What are you doing over the summer?" She asked, twirling her pen in her fingers.

"I'm actually going to London." I smiled, pulling my hood off as our AP English teacher entered the room.

"No way, I'm so jealous. I'm stuck at home, babysitting my little siblings while my parents go to work." She whispered, not wanting the teacher to hear.

"Will you get paid?" I asked.

"Of course."

"Then save it and you can go to London sometime too." I smiled. Her parents were crazy rich, but they barely ever got to go on vacation because her parents were always working. Her dad worked in Seattle and was barely home, but he was a CEO of a big company and tried to buy his kids' love. Her mother was a lawyer, and while she worked crazy hours, her office was only a 2 minute walk from their house. It was surprising what you could learn about a person when you only talk to them an hour a day throughout the year.

"I might just do that."

"I'll bring you back some tea." I teased, knowing that it was the only hot beverage she liked.

"I appreciate that."

Our conversation came to a halt when our teacher, Mr. Ramsey, started talking.

"So, everyone, congratulations. You all did exceptionally well in my class this year. I have a few things I've finally marked and will hand back throughout the class. You may talk amount yourselves quietly as I do so." He smiled and then sat in his chair to go through the piles of papers he had on his desk.

Spencer and I continued our conversations as he called people up to his desk every now and again. We talked mostly about music. It was always out go-to topic when we couldn't think of anything else, because we enjoyed the same typed of bands and artists.

When the bell rang, ending our conversation and our final English class, I was more than shocked when she pulled me into a hug.

"I know we aren't friends, but I really like you." She said.

I tapped her back kind of awkwardly. I wasn't very good at physical interaction with people I wasn't very close with. "I feel the same."

"Oh, and if you can't find any tea in London, feel free to just get me a hot guy with an accent." She teased.

"I'll keep that in mind." I laughed.

The rest of the day went by fairly good. I hung out at my locker during long break, which was right after first period, and listened to some of my music, thinking about how my mom and dad could possibly afford to fly me to London and get a place for me to stay. That morning, after I showered and changed, mom, dad, and I sat at the table as I was eating and went through all the details. I was leaving tomorrow morning and getting back two weeks before school started so that I could get used to the time difference. They rented out a loft, an actual _loft_, for me in central London. They also gave me 1000$ spending cash.

I was so excited at the time that I didn't even think of the price of all of this. While my mom made a good paycheck, she was a lawyer with the same firm Spencer's mom was in; my dad was the chief of police here in Forks. All of this, the plane tickets, the loft, the money, was way out of my parents' budget.

During my two classes between long break and lunch, I decided to be my usually anti-social self and blast music while I crunched a few numbers. Math was one of my strong points, so my parents got me to do their taxes. Because of this, I knew their annual incomes, and how much they save for their retirements, my college fund and for luxury.

Before the bell rang, announcing lunch, I realised that with my estimate prices of everything, if would have taken all of their luxury savings and some of my college fund or of their retirement funds savings for the last few years to pay for all of this, which was just unacceptable.

Before I brought myself into a panic attack that they were wasting all their money on my trip, I decided that I would go home, get answers from them, and then figure everything out.

I turned up my music as I was leaving the class, and just as And We Danced started playing. The lyrics were dirty, but the beat was undeniably good. In my true style, I made my way to my, Rose's, Emmett's and Jasper's lunch table by dancing slightly to myself and mouthing the lyrics to the song.

As I sat down in my chair between Rose and Jas, I took our one headphone and continued dancing. Emmett and Jas looked amused by my dancing, but not creeped out because they were so used to it. It was a mixture between weird hand/shoulder movements sometimes matching the lyrics and bad shimmies. Rose, as usual, grabbed my other headphone, and danced along.

When the song changed, and I stopped dancing, Emmett just smiled and said, "So, I heard you're going to London."

"Yup," I responded as I continued moving my upper body to the beat of my music.

"Are you excited?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, God, yes of course I am. You know how infatuated with England I've been for, like, ever. I just cannot believe I finally get to go." I smiled and took a bite out of Jasper's slice of pizza.

Jas and I had become friends almost immediately through Rose. I didn't meet him right away, because he lived with their mom until he was 14, when she died. When he came here, Rose and their dad let him into their lives with open arms and warm hearts.

He could shred on guitar and liked all the same bands as I do, so we bonded though that. We were both fluent in sarcasm, sexual innuendos and he got my humour, but he was more likable by other people than I was. We tried dating in grade 9 for awhile, and he was my first and the only person I've had sex with, but we realised that we were better off as friends. We both agreed that we don't think we were really boyfriend/girlfriend, but we're glad we were each other's firsts so that we could get it out of the way.

"Are you going to bring me back anything?" Jas winked.

We might be just friends, but that didn't stop wither of us from harmless flirting.

"What would you want?" I looked over at him smirking.

"You to come back with an accent, so that I can have a hot friend with a sexy voice." He teased.

"Oh, is my voice not sexy enough now?" I feigned being insulted.

"Not as much as it could be."

"Well then, I'll get right on that. Heaven forbid you have to have a friend whose voice isn't as hot as it could be."

"Exactly, glad you understand."

"It's too bad you guys didn't work out, y'all are adorable." Rose teased.

Rose was okay that we had dated, but she wasn't exactly heartbroken that we didn't last. She said that, while it was weird that I had dated and had sex with her brother, she was also upset that we weren't going to become "legal sisters".

"Yeah, too bad." I rolled my eyes.

The rest of lunch, Jas and Em talked about some football camp they were going to sometime in July, and Rose and I talked about what Rose was going to do over the summer.

"I might join the gym. I'm way out of shape." Rose commented as she took a drink of her water.

I just looked at her, not bothering to comment on how stupid that was. Rose was amazing shape. She was tall, and thin, but still had some curves.

"Okay, I know you think that's ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm fat or anything. I just need to start running or something, because my stamina is absolute shit." She reasoned

I nodded my head to myself, because that made sense. Rose was on the cheer squad, and she was super flexible, but she couldn't run for shit.

"I wish I was more like you." I heard her whisper, probably more to herself than to me.

My head snapped over to her, shocked at what she said. Rose and I both had our insecurities, just like any other girl, but we also both hated self-loathing. We were there for each other, but we barely talked about stuff like that. I hated having people's attention on my insecurities, and Rose hated feeling weak.

"What are you talking about?"

"You swim all the time, you surf all throughout the year, and you walk to the library all the time when you do so of course you have good stamina. I wish I had that."

We both told each other that we were there for each other, that it didn't bother us if we vented about how much our lives suck, but neither one of us would be the first to do it.

"You think I'm able to any of my splits? Rose, we both have our strengths." I reassured.

"I guess."

"Besides, I'm pretty sure Emmett doesn't mind the flexibility." I teased.

"Yeah that's true," She laughed.

And just like that she was fine.

xoxoxox

My last two classes were much like the beginning of the day. Emmett and Jas were in my last class, but they were called out by the football coach to talk about something probably football related. Our last class teacher was in charge of giving us our report card at the end of the day. I laughed quietly to myself as people had very different reactions to getting their final marks of the year. This was the first year the marks really mattered for college. Some were obviously okay with how they thought their marks would turn out, but others were obviously just starting to understand how much they mattered now.

As I left the class, I grabbed my report. It was a simple white sheet of paper with your marks, class, teachers name, and how many days you were absent in each class. I took the paper and folded it so that it was small enough to fit in my pocket. Before I walked outside, I lifted my sweater slightly to get access to my shorts' pocket. My shorts were so short, and my sweater so big, that you could only see the edge of my shorts underneath of it.

After, I met Rose outside where we usually do, and she smiled at me.

"I'll come get you in about 20 minutes. You can just drop your truck off and then we'll go, okay?" Rose clarified.

"Sounds good, yeah." I agreed. I jumped into my old, pickup truck, and drove home.

When I got home, I shouted out, "Hey!"

"Oh!" I heard my mom say. "Jeez, Bells, you scared me."

"Oh, sorry." I said as I looked into the fridge to see if there was anything to drink.

"Your shorts are some short," She remarked; obviously only noticing it now.

"I have shorter."

"Why aren't you at school?" She looked at me, frowning. She was wearing her usual work clothes which consisted of small black heels, a white blouse and black dress pants.

I looked at her, confused. "It was a half day. You know, shorter classes. I feel weird though because lunch was an hour earlier than it usually was so that it could accommodate the schedule. "

"Oh, right. I forgot. So, how were your marks?" She smiled.

"I don't know, I haven't looked yet," I responded. I grabbed the folded up white piece of paper out of my pocket, and put it on the table in front of her.

"Well then I'll take a look." She said as I took a drink out of the orange juice carton quickly, so that she wouldn't see, and put it back in the fridge.

"Oh, hunny, this is amazing! You got everything above a 95." She smiled.

"Holy shit, actually?" I asked in disbelief, grabbing it from her. She was right; everything was either a 95 or higher.

"Language!"

"Right, sorry."

"Oh, that's so great. I'm so proud." She gave me a big hug.

"Oh, thanks. Um, mom? There's something I need to ask you." I said nervously, not sure how to start this conversation, especially when I only have about 10 minutes until Rose got here.

"Yes, what is it?"

I played with the folded up piece of paper for a bit and I decided to just go out and say it.

"How can you afford that trip?"

She sighed and looked down. "Your father wanted to keep it a surprise and tell you later, like when you got back. I agreed but I knew that you'd ask."

"What are you talking about?"

"We got contacted by a few colleges a few months ago." She said as if it made all the sense in the world.

Well, it didn't.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Your school noticed how high your marks were and when a few people came to the school at the beginning of this school year to talk to some of the twelfth graders, your principal mentioned your name."

I was so confused. "And...?"

"And the colleges were so impressed with your grades. They looked at your 9th, 10th and some of your 11th year grades and they told the school that if your marks remained where they were, especially with your volunteer work at the homeless shelter and at the library all year round, they would think of giving you a free ride. And then once they left I guess word got around and I was contacted by a number of schools." She explained to me.

I was still so confused. "Why, though? I mean, I get good grades and I do that volunteer stuff sometimes, but I don't know what I want to do yet. And what does that have to do with the vacation?"

"Hun, the schools called me, directly, to say that they were impressed with everything about you. They looked into you. They talked about you being on the swim team, your school marks, and your volunteer work. They told me and your father that if you kept up the good work, you'd get a free ride. You'd get to go to college for _free._"

_Holy shit._ "Wow," I whispered. I was so shocked. I didn't do anything thinking about college. I did the things I did because I loved them. My mom and dad both told me to get involved at school, and since I hated socializing with a lot of people at school, and I'd been swimming since I was 3, I joined the swim team. We were a team, but swimming itself was an individual thing. The volunteer work was just for fun as well. I eventually made friends with some of the older people at the homeless shelter, so I continued going every Sunday. Working at the library was just for me, too. If you volunteer there, you get to take out more books at once, and the late charges are less expensive.

My mom sat down in her seat at the kitchen table, in front of her laptop, and I just stood there against the kitchen table, unsure of what to feel.

"Yes, wow. This is a big deal, Bella. Your father and I want you to pick where you go, so you don't have to pick one of the ones that called us directly. But we figured that, since they seemed so interested so early, if you applied for some scholarships with some different schools, we might not have to pay full price."

"So, you paid for my vacation with my college funds?"

"We were planning on taking you eventually. We planned on taking you earlier, when you were younger, as a family vacation, but that wasn't in the budget back then. We then thought that maybe you'd want to go alone, so, that made it a less expensive. But, yes, we dipped into your funds just a little bit. We still have enough that if the school you chose doesn't give any scholarships, you wouldn't have to get too many student loans." She explained, nervously now. I knew she didn't know what was going on in my mind; I had a bad habit of making my facial expressions go completely blank when too many thoughts were going on in my mind.

"You know my top 3 schools." I reminded her.

"None of them called."

"None?"

"No Ivy Leagues called. But that doesn't mean they won't be interested." She tried to make me feel better.

My top 3 schools were Harvard, Columbia and Oxford. Oxford was my number one choice, but I knew it was the least likely of the three for me to be accepted into.

"Well that's still pretty awesome." I smiled. I finally sorted through all of my emotions and I realised that there was nothing wrong with this situation. Schools were interested in me already, and I got a trip to London out of it.

"Yeah, it is pretty awesome." My mom laughed.

"Thanks for tell me." I smiled.

"It's nothing, hun. I have to get to work now, so I'll see you later." She turned to the table to start packing up her stuff.

"Yeah, sure. Oh, by the way, Rose and I are going to the mall to make sure I have everything I need for when I'm away."

"Okay, sounds good."

I waited outside on the front porch with my purse for Rose. I quickly went through all of my clothes and toiletries before I came outside and I made a small list on my phone of what I'd need.

When she pulled up, I hopped into her car and put my seat belt on.

"Ready?" Rose asked. "This is the last time I'll get to hang with you until August."

It suddenly hit me that this would be the first time since the 6th grade, when we were allowed to walk around this small town alone, that we wouldn't be with each other all the time.

Smiling sadly, I answered, "Yeah, I'm ready."

She pulled her car into reverse and we made our way to Port Angeles, to our usually shopping spot, for our first and last shopping spree of the summer, together.

**So that's all for now. I don't know how I feel about writing an actual chapter story because the last time I tried that, I failed miserably at updating. But since I have the next few days off, and it's the start to a new semester so I might be able to find time regularly to update.**

**I'm not yet going to say if there's a specific day I'll update, because I don't want to break any promises so early in the game.**

**Again, this kind of just came to me. I've loved London for a very long time, for the same reasons Bella has, so I refuse to abandon this story.**

**I hope you like it, and please remember to let me know what you think by reviewing this. I appreciate all reviews I get.**

**~Bailey**


	2. Everything I Ask For

As me and Rose drove down the highway, we sang along to the music on my phone. Normally we'd listen to something I really like that she doesn't know, or some auto tuned pop song that she liked and I couldn't stand. However, today, because it was the first and last time we'd be going to the mall this summer, we blasted some old school Eminem, and sang along.

_"So the FCC won't let me be, or let me be me so let me see. They try to shut me down on MTV, but it feels so empty without me."_

"Oh geez," Rose said as she turned down the music and laughed, pulling into the parking lot for the mall.

"What?" I asked.

"Look." She nodded her head towards a couple, a young couple, near the entrance. They were huddled over a baby carriage that had a baby in it. It looked as if they were arguing.

I was about to ask her why that was significant, when I realised who they were.

It was my ex, Josh, his new girlfriend, Emma, the one he impregnated while we were still together, and their infant child. I heard they named her Stephanie.

While I definitely did _not_ feel bad for him, I did feel a bit bad for her and their baby. After she got pregnant, she came to visit me at my house. I guess Josh didn't tell her about me, and she was very sorry that it happened. I, realising she never meant to harm me, just smiled at the time and said that I understood. Both her and Josh are a year old than I and had just graduated high school this year.

She explained to me how her mom, while upset with her carelessness, she was going to help take care of their baby. She told me that she assumed I wanted to have nothing to do with her, but she just wanted to clarify that she knew nothing of me, and never meant to hurt anyone. She just wanted to be with Josh, not that I could blame her.

I know now that she was considering breaking up with him after she found out about me, but didn't for the sake of their child. I could tell that by the way she smiled at her stomach when she came to my house that she was definitely excited to become a mother.

Rose and I left the car and while I knew that she didn't want to be near them, they were right by the entrance so we had to walk by them to get into the mall. I made eye contact with Emma as I walked by and she waved at me, blowing her blonde bangs out of her eyes so that she could look at me properly.

"Well that's one guy that I'm glad is out of our life." Rose told me as we walked in the mall.

"I know what you mean." I agreed.

We walked into the first store where I could get a few nice shirts and shorts for cheap, and we walked to the girl section in my size.

"So, what do you need?"

"Well, I need shorts mostly. I have a few t-shirts so maybe just a few of those. I want to get a new pair of Toms too, so that I have clean ones for while I'm there. I also need regular stuff like deodorant, tooth paste, tampons, bobby pins and hair elastics. Some mascara, eye makeup remover and lip gloss would be good. I'm going to get some headphones too, because we both know how easily I break mine." I teased, as I read off my list.

"This is true. Is your place furnished?" She asked as she looked through the racks that had shorts on them.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just wondering in case you need any furniture."

"Oh, that would be a pain, having to bring a bunch of furniture there and back. God, that's be terrible."

"I know," she laughed.

We looked through the racks together, and while the trip was mainly for me, we both found many things to try on. Out of that one store I got all the shorts I thought I'd need, they had a sale, and a few shirts.

Rose and I went to almost every store in the small mall. We went to most almost all of them together, but at one point she went off on her own, saying that she needed to get something for herself. She said she didn't want me to waste my time, so she'd meet up with me in a bit.

During this time, because I didn't have her to tell me no, I ended up buying way too many things. I got 3 pairs of Toms, instead of just one, a few more pairs of shorts, some t-shirts, headphones and a few books. She was shaking her head in amusement at me when she saw me with all my bags.

"Oh my, what did you do? Buy something out of every store?"

"Pretty much, but they were all good sales. I guess, though, it's a good thing I've been saving almost all of my work money for college and in hopes of this trip." I said as we sat down, together, in the food court.

"Wait; hold up, you spent you college funds? Bells, seriously, you've been saving for school since you were 13 and got your first babysitting jobs!" She said, frowning.

"Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you yet. I guess some colleges are interested in me already, and my mom told me as I was walking out the door that I could spend the money I saved here and in England because she figured I'd be getting a lot of scholarships." I explained.

"Wow, that's huge, Bells. Congratulations! Now, is there anything else you need to get?" Rose asked. "It's almost time for us to go."

"I just need to go to the drug store and then I'll be good." I said.

"Okay." We both grabbed out things and made our way to the drug store so that I could get the last of my things.

xoxoxox

After about a total of 2 hours shopping, we made our way back to her car so that we could head home.

"You know," Rose said as she pulled onto the highway. "I'm really going to miss you. All of us are, actually, me, Em and Jas."

"I'm going to miss you all too. I'm excited to go, don't get me wrong, but I'll be alone .I'm sure I'll meet people there, but I'll be without you guys. It's going to be even harder for me, though, because I don't like a lot of people," I teased sarcastically.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine. I'll call you throughout your weeks so you can give me updates on your time, and we can FaceTime, too." She assured me.

"I wonder what it's going to be like, there, in London. I'll be all alone, in a strange city, surrounded by people with awesome accents."

"I can't even imagine, but I'm sure you'll have an amazing time."

"I'm sure," I agreed.

I turned up the music on my phone so that out favorite songs could drown out the sad thoughts of me leaving. Peirce the Veil filled the car and we sang along, just like always, as we made our way home.

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked as we passed the street my house was on.

"We're going to my place first." She explained as he pulled down her street.

"Oh, okay. And why's that?" I asked. She pulled into her driveway and we both undid our seat belts.

"We won't be long, so just leave your things in here." She instructed.

We walked through her red front door of her grand, white, Victorian styled house. She would usually lead the way to either her room or her kitchen, so we could stock up on junk food before we got to her room. Instead, though, she led us both into her very nice living room. It had high ceilings, and a huge chandelier, and designer named furniture.

Her dad worked in Seattle, and he owned his own company. Years ago, before he divorced his now-deceased ex-wife, and before me and Rose became friends, I guess he wasn't home a lot. He had to be in Seattle all the time so that he could start up his business. After about a year, though, he managed to find someone who could be there all the times he wasn't, and he was home more often. I guess what he did was important and made him lots of money, but I could never quite remember what it was.

Rose sat me down on the couch and just as I was about to ask her, again, what was going on, Emmett, Jasper and Rose's dad came into the room as well.

Emmett came in and stood by Rose at first, towering over her at 6'7". He had short, curly black hair, and huge dimples. From all his football, and the time he spent at the gym, he had the body of a weightlifter. He might look scary at first, but he had the personality of a 6 year old half the time, and had the ability to win you over with just a smile, sometimes.

Jasper came and sat beside me. He was taller than me still, but had a more reasonable height of 6'1". He had hair the same color blonde as Rose, and piercing blue eyes that matched hers as well. While he was leaner than Emmett, there was no doubt he was fit.

"Hello Bella." Liam, Rose's dad greeted me.

"Hey Mr. H." I smiled back. When I first met him, he insisted I call him Liam, instead of sir or Mr. Hale like I usually did, but I didn't feel comfortable enough. Even though I very comfortable here now, his nickname I made, Mr. H, had stuck so I just kept calling him that.

"So, you are probably wondering what you're doing here," he observed.

"Yeah, I am." I agreed.

"Now, Bella. Don't freak out, but we decided that, since you're going away and all, we'd all pitch in to give you an extra special gift." Emmett voiced.

My eyes shot to Rose. "Is this why you need to go by yourself for a bit at the mall?

She nodded. "This among other things. I also worked a bit on it after school today, before I came to get you. But the idea came to me at school today."

I just shook my head smiled, but very confused. "Well, okay. I guess that makes sense. But you guys really don't have to get me anything. I mean, for one, it isn't even my birthday."

"That's irrelevant." Jasper said. "You're going away and we want to give you something special."

Before I had time to say anything, they all came around me, Rose and Jasper on either side of me on the couch, and then Mr. H and Emmet kneeling in front of me.

"Here," Me. H said as he wanted me a red envelope.

_My favorite color,_ I thought as I took it.

I opened the envelope and saw that it had a piece of white printer paper with something written on it by all of them.

_Dear Bella,_

_ You always were like a daughter to me. Ever since you stumbled through my threshold all those year ago with your little pigtails and your cute dimples I knew you were going to be like a new member of this family. And that you are. You help Rosalie throughout all her problems, whether they're with relationships, academics or just the hardships of being a teenage girl, you are always there. For this, I say thank you. I hope you enjoy yourself on trip to the elegant city of London, England._

_ From,"Mr. H" _

As I read Mr. H's letter he wrote for me, tears started welling in my eyes. I never knew he felt that way towards me. I didn't say anything, but I looked at up him and smiled, silently telling him my thanks.

_Bells,_

_ You better know hope much I care about you. We might not have always been friends and we might not have connected as easily as you did with my Rosie and Jas, but I'm glad I can say you're my friend. It may sound cliché, but you're kinda like the little sis I never asked for and never knew I wanted. Rosie told me once that she noticed that I look at you differently than I do other people. She told me that it wasn't out of love, like the way I love her, but it was different. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she explained that it was like I was always looking out for you, always looking out to protect you. And I guess that's true. I love you in a weird way, Bells. It took everything I had not to bang Josh's face in when I saw you crying over him. He doesn't know what he's missing out on. I'll always be here for you Bells; you're practically family. _

_ I'll miss you while you're away. Love ya!_

_ Love, Emmett _

"No spelling errors," I teased, laughing. I looked down at him with tears still forming in my eyes and smiled. "Love ya too, Emmy."

He just smiled back and continued rocking back and forth on his ass like a little kid.

_Dearest Bella,_

_ I think I liked you since the moment I saw you. I pulled into the driveway of dad's house and Rose and him were just standing there. I didn't see you at first. I had met them both beforehand, so they both gave me a big hug, greeting me, and then Rose introduced me to you. I swear, I was so surprised by what you looked like, in a good way. As you know, Rose is fairly pristine with her appearance. I knew her enough by then that she was kind hearted, but loved her designer clothes. You were the exact opposite. You had your ripped, black skinnies on. You were drowning in your too big, black All Time Low hoody, had black eye liner all around your eyes, and had one headphone in your ear. It was loud enough that I could hear it. Everything I Ask For by The Maine was playing, I still remember. _

_ We may not have worked out as a couple, but I suppose that's predictable as we were just young kids at 14. However, I will always care for you. I say you're like my little sister but I feel different towards you than I do Rose. Although, I guess that is also predictable because I did have sex with you. You'll always be my first love, and my first everything else too. But I think the reason we didn't work out is because, while I loved you, I wasn't in love with you, just as I'm sure you felt. If I were try to explain that to anyone, but you, they'd laugh because we were only 14, it shouldn't been about real love anyway. But we were both different than others. You surprised me in a good way when I first met you, and even though I think I know everything there is to know about you, you still continue to surprise me daily._

_ I'll miss you over the summer. I know you're going to have the time of your life, but I'm still going to miss you. The way you feel so comfortable here, you don't even bother knocking anymore. The way you put peanut butter on your hot dogs. The way you always have one headphone in, listening to music, as I'm sure you're doing now as you're reading this. The way you love Tumblr and how you're not embarrassed to laugh aloud at someone the things you read, even if it's at inappropriate times. The way that when you smile, your whole face brightens, but only when you're in the mood to socialise of course._

_ Have a great summer Bells, Love Jas_

I had tears streaming down my cheeks as I finished reading his note. In fact, I got a few tears stains on the crisp piece of paper. Not being able to help myself, I buried my face into Jasper's shoulder, and he put his arm around me.

He was right. We didn't work out as a couple, but I'll always care for him. He'll always mean something to me, and I don't think there's anything that could change that.

I kept my head on his shoulder, but I turned my face so that I could read the last note; Rose's letter.

_Hey hey Bells!_

_ Well well, where to begin. We've been best friends for almost forever, since kindergarten. That's a shit long time. But it was almost all perfect. We had our ups and downs, sure, but what friends don't? I may have other kind-of-friends at school, but none of them will ever come close to comparing to how much you mean to me. I love you, bells, and you better not forget that. Cause, let's face it, you're stuck with me. You don't like a lot of people, I know that, but even if you start to hate me, I know ways of making you laugh. _

_ I'm actually so jealous that you get to go on this trip. I've always loved London and the idea of going there, but not the same way you did. That's one of the amazing things about you. You don't half-ass most things. You like what you like, and you like it a lot. And you definitely like London, England, and the accents of the people there. _

_ On a more serious level, I need to clarify something. You are an amazing person, Bella. I see the way you look at yourself in the mirror sometimes, and you need to know that you _are _worth it. I know you never talk about it, but I saw the cuts you had on your wrist at the end of the grade 9 and most of the 10__th__ grade. You're beautiful Bella. And Funny and smart and kind and talented and you have the best music taste out of everyone I know. You may not get told that enough, but I'm telling you now. I wish I could do have the stuff you do. I get so jealous of you sometimes. You may not believe it, but it's true. You may not also believe this, but it's true as well. You will find someone who loves you the way Emmett loves me, and your dad loves your mom. I know you find it hard to be around a lot of people for a long period of time, but you will find someone. Someone who loves your taste in music. Someone who doesn't mind your internet addiction. Someone who can appreciate how much you love Harry Potter. Someone amazing you gets you like I do. And they'll love you like I do, too._

_ You are going to have the best time ever in London. I've never been, but I've heard so many good things. Well, most of the things I've heard have been from you, but whatever. I'll miss you so much, girl, you have no idea. _

_ You're bestest friend ever, Rosalie xox_

By now, I had tears falling down my face quickly, and I could barely see. I was never usually one to get emotional over what people said to me, but there were so many things written in all these notes that have never been said allowed before. I never knew that Mr. H cared for me like a daughter. Or that Emmett loved me in his own way. Jasper never told me he had that kind of first impression of me. And I definitely never knew that Rosalie got jealous of me.

Realising I wasn't going to be able to verbalise my thanks, Mr H said, "There's something else in the envelope."

Wondering what else they could possibly get me, other than these precious words, I reached my hand in and found money; lots of money.

"It's 1000$ cash, in 100 dollar bills," Jasper whispered to me, knowing my eyes were too blurry to count.

I shook my head, as tears fell down my cheeks. That was way too much, but I wasn't able to verbalise it.

They didn't give me the chance to deny it though, because they all came up to me to give me a huge hug. When my crying had stopped, they pulled away, but Emmett lightly grabbed me by my shoulders and said, "You're going to take this without any complaints. I know you think it's so much, but really no amount of money could ever amount to how much we all love you. Get it?"

"Got it," I smiled.

"Good," He smiled back.

This, right here, is why these guys mean so much to me. They always knew what do say, and what to do to make me feel loved and cared for. Emmett was right when he said no amount of money could amount to how much we all meant to each other. The money was completely unnecessary, but I could tell by their faces that there was no way I could deny it, so I just gave them all a hug and thanked them for their very generous gift.

xoxoxox

"Bella, it's time to wake up."

My mother was shaking me awake at 5 am, just like she said last night she was going to.

Last night, Rose, Jas, and Em stayed the night. My mom didn't usually let me have Jas and Em stay the night, but she made an exception last night because I would be away all summer.

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

I let the other three sleep in a little longer, so I brought all my things into my bathroom to shower and get ready alone without having to worry about being to loud.

I was only going to wear my old, black shorts and my Breathe Carolina concert shirt I got on eBay. I wore little makeup, because I'd be on flights all day, and I let my hair stay down and curl naturally as it always did. I packed last night with Em, Jas and Rose, and I managed to keep it down to one large suit case, one medium sized suitcase, a small book bag as a carry on, and a small over-the-shoulder purse as a carry on as well. I quietly zipped up my bags after I put my toiletries back into them, put my phone, its charger, some gum and my wallet in my small purse, and did one last look around my room. My closets and drawers were almost empty; my book shelf had obvious gaps in them because I took so many of them. My desk looked bare without my laptop and docking station.

I ate a fast breakfast of cereal before I went to wake up the gang.

Walking into the room, I slammed the door a bit hard, and turned on the light. Clapping my hands to get their sleeping asses awake, I announced, "Get up, everyone. I'm leaving soon!"

It was now almost 6 am now, and my first flight was at 9am. I was going from here to South Dakota, then to New York, and then from there I was going to England. Mom said that if I woke up at 5, I would have time to get ready on the morning without being in a rush, have enough time to say my goodbyes, and get to the airport with time still to spare.

Their eyes all slowly opened and adjusted to the light. We fell asleep fairly early last night, knowing that I had to get up early, so the bounced into their regular selves quite quickly, and they all stood up. They changed and helped themselves to the food in my fridge, and soon enough it was time to say goodbye.

My mom and dad were coming to the airport with me, so they left me alone in the kitchen with my friends so that I could say goodbye.

Emmett came up to me first.

He engulfed me in his signature bear hug. "I hope you have a load of fun, Bells. I'm gonna miss you soooo much!" His hug lifted me off the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed.

"I'm going to miss you so much too, Emmett." I responded, smiling.

He let go of me, set me on the floor gently, and made way for Rose.

She came at me with open arms and almost attacked me. Our arms wrapped around each other and our heads rested on each other's shoulders. She was taller than my 5'6", but not by much. She whispered, "I'm going to miss you B."

Sighing, I whispered back, "I'm going to miss you so much, too, Rose."

She hugged me for a bit longer, rocking me from side to side, and moved out of the way for Jasper.

Jasper gave the best hugs. He was taller than me, but not by much, so I felt very protective in his arms, very safe. I wrapped my arms around his waist, and he entwined his arms around my shoulders. I buried my face in the crook of his neck, and I felt him lay his on top of my head, gently. We didn't say anything. We didn't have to. As I was hugging him, I could feel him kiss the top of my head gently.

After I gave all my hugs and goodbyes, Emmett and Jasper brought all my things out to the trunk.

"Jeez, you all look as if I'm dying or something! I'll be back in August, in two months. You guys will see me again, you know," I teased.

"We know," Rose smiled. "We'll just miss you."

"I know and I'll miss you guys too."

I gave everyone one last hug, before I climbed into the backseat of my mom and dad's car.

"Ready?" My dad, Charlie, asked.

Looking out the window and waving to my three best friends standing there, I answered, "Yeah, I'm ready."

My dad hit the gas of the car, pulling out of the drive way, away from my friends, but that much closer to my destination; London, England.

**I'm so proud of myself for writing so soon after my last update. Please don't learn to expect this. I might be able to update within the next few days because I don't go back to school until Wednesday. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Edward will make his appearance soon, if not next chapter than the one after. **

**Please let me know what you guys thought of this one by leaving a comment. **

**~Bailey**


	3. Crash

My mom was practically sobbing into my shoulder as she hugged me goodbye.

"It's alright, mom, I'll be back in August, and I'll text you while I'm there. I have free roaming charges, remember?" I soothed, patting her back.

"I know," she sniffed. "You're just all grown up. You know, if someone asked me a few years ago if I'd let my daughter, at the young age of 17, go to London all by herself, I'd say hell no. But you're so mature for such a young age. I'm so proud of you." She took her hands and lightly cupped my cheeks, smiling.

I smiled back at her. "Thanks ma, that means a lot. I'm going to miss you too. But, don't worry. I'll be responsible."

"You better be," I heard my father say. I looked over at him and he had a stern look on his face. "There'll be no alcohol, drugs, or boys. Understand me?"

I nodded and didn't say anything. They had nothing to worry about when it came to drugs and alcohol. The taste of beer and wine disgusted me, and I can't throw back shots without chocking. I tried drugs before, but I didn't like the way they made me feel, plus my swim couch did drug tests before every meet, so if I did them, I wouldn't be able to swim.

Boys on the other hand.

I mean, I wouldn't go searching for them. I wasn't even sure if boys there would like me; none here did. But who was I to refuse the company of a potentially hot guy with a British accent? It just wouldn't be my place.

"Oh, don't be so harsh," my mother teased him, going to stand by his side. "We know she's responsible. And it's not like we wouldn't have done worse at that age, all alone, for a month."

"Oh, gross, guys. Come on, I'm standing right here!" I whined.

My parents met when they were 16, and my mom got pregnant right after high school with me. There were times that they didn't think they were going to be able to stay with each other, because they were so young when they got married, but they managed to get through it and they still love each other very much. I have no idea how they did it; I'd get tired of the person I was with after that long.

"Oh, we know," my dad smiled. "Renee and I trust you to be responsible there. The landlord will be there twice a month, upon out request, to make sure you have everything under control. We know you'll do fine."

"_All passengers for the flight going to the state of South Dakota are to be boarding their flight now, thank you_," we heard over the intercom.

"Well, that's my queue." I said, picking up my two carry ons and stood in front of my parents. I had books in my bag along with my phone charger, extra headphones and some makeup. In my small purse was my wallet which had the money I got transferred over into pounds, my flight tickets for later today, my phone, lip-gloss and my sunglasses. In my hand were my ticket and my passport.

"Oh, our baby's all grown up," my mom said to my dad.

"That she is," he agreed.

I said my final goodbyes to them, and walked over to the lady who scanned the tickets and checked our passports.

"There you go," she said, handing back my ticket, smiling.

"Thanks," I muttered.

Once I was clear, and walking down the little hallway towards the plane, I stopped and looked back.

My parents were still there, together, looking at me. I smiled and waved at them, and they both waved back. Turning back around, I took a deep breath, and went to find my seat.

xoxoxox

I slept the whole flight but I guess that's what happens when you wake up at 5 am.

I was lucky enough that, when we boarded in South Dakota at 11 am sharp, I found out my next flight was in only 30 minutes. I walked around the floor my terminal was on and looked through some magazines.

I had both of my headphones on, along with my sunglasses, as I flipped through a gossip magazine. I was dancing slightly, just moving my shoulders and my head to the beat, as I mouthed the lyrics to Yeah by Usher.

I was minding my own business, enjoying looking at the pictures, when I saw a very big, very handsome guy, come up and stand in front of me. It looked like he was trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear him because my music was so loud.

"... Do you?" I heard him finish as I took out a headphone.

"Sorry, what was that?" I asked politely, even though I didn't really want to talk to anyone right now.

"Do you really believe what they say in those?" He asked again, smiling, and motioned to the magazine in my hands.

I shook my head. "Nope. I find it impossible how they could actually know so much about someone's life. Celebrities may be in the public eye a lot, but they still have a life."

"I agree," he smiled at me. He pushed his brown hair out of his face, revealing hazel eyes. "I'm Dustin, nice to meet you."

"Pleasure," I responded, putting the magazine down, and walked away.

"Are you going to tell me your name?" He asked following me.

"Probably not."

"And why's that?"

Annoyed, I turned around to look at him. "Was there something you wanted?" I asked.

"To know what your name is."

"No, I mean like, why are you talking to me?"

"Well, I don't know," he shrugged. "You look familiar."

I raised my eyebrows and was about to respond when I heard my flight being announced over the intercom.

"Well, that's me," I said, walking past him towards the gate I needed to get to.

"No way, you're going to New York, too?" He asked, coming to stand by me again.

"It's just a stop along the way." I didn't look over at him. I kept my eyes forwards and walked faster than I normally do to see if he would get the hint.

"Where's your final destination?" He asked.

_Away from you,_ I thought. "Europe," I responded instead.

"Oh, cool," he answered, falling a few steps behind me as he started walking slower. I guess he finally got the hint.

Once I was finally on the plane, I got out my phone and saw I had a text message from Rose, Em, Jas, and, surprisingly, Spence.

Emmett's text said: _Hey B, hope ur flights r going good. its already boring here without u. miss you!_

Jasper's said_: Ur missed already. Em and Rose were practically attacking each other, so ive resorted to my room and im so bored. love you, B_

Rose's was: _I dont know how im going to handle this summer without u but i hope you have fun. let me know how ur flights go:) !_

And Spencer's, the most recent one, read_: Hey Bella. I know you might not get this until later, but I just wanted to tell you that I hope you have a good time. And don't forget the tea, or, my really hot British guy ;)_

Laughing, I sent them all a reply, mentioning how I missed them too and that my flights were going good.

I put my phone away, my sunglasses back on, both my headphones back in, and relaxed while listening to A Day To Remember's cover of Over My Head. I was just about to turn it up all the way when I heard, "No way!"

Turning my head I saw Dustin, the guy from outside, standing there. Taking out one headphone, I asked, "What?"

"I'm sitting beside you." He laughed as he put his carry-on in the little department above out heads, and sat down beside me.

"Oh, joy," I muttered and looked back forward.

"Hey," he said ,frowning, gaining my attention yet again. "Did I do something to offend you or something?"

Sighing, I put my sunglasses on top of my head and looked over at him. "No, I just don't really like people."

He laughed and shook his head. "I get that. You just look actually so familiar and I have no idea why."

"Alright."

He continued to inspect my face, making me feel really awkward. I didn't know what he wanted me to do, so I looked away. The flight took off and he still didn't say anything, so I put my sunglasses back on, and my headphones in.

As the song was changing, he gained my attention yet again, when he snapped his fingers. I took out a headphone and looked over at him, waiting for him to say something.

"You swim!"

"Yup."

"You competed against my little sister."

"What school?"

During the next few hours I realised that I did, in fact, compete in a 400 meters freestyle race against his little sister this past school year. And I won. His little sister goes to school in Port Angeles, where he was born and raised. He was in his first year at a college in South Dakota, and was on his way to Ney York city to visit his high school sweetheart.

"Are you going to tell me your name, ever?" He asked, jokingly.

"Bella," I answered and stuck out my hand.

"So, Bella, what's your story? You know most of mine, so it's only fair of you to tell me yours."

"Well, I just finished my junior year at high school. I swim, I listen to music, I'm anti-social and I sleep terribly. I like the color red, I drink way too much hot chocolate, and I don't like people. I read a lot, I go on Tumblr too much, my room is almost never clean, and I don't know what I would do without my three best friends." I smiled.

"Well, aren't you interesting?"

"Damn straight, I am."

"Where are you headed?"

"London, England," I answered, smiling.

"Alone?" He asked, sounding surprised.

I nodded. "I'm responsible, and it's always been my dream to go."

"Well I hope you enjoy yourself."

"Oh, I definitely will."

We sat together in silence for a bit, and then he asked, "What song are you listening to?"

"Backseat Serenade."

"Who's it by?"

"The best band ever."

"Which is?"

"All Time Low," I answered smiling.

"Never heard of them."

"They're the best."

"So you said."

We again ran out of things to talk about, but it wasn't an awkward silence, so I just sat there beside him, smiling.

"Why are you wearing sunglasses?" He asked.

"I like them."

"That's the only reason?"

"Well, normally when someone sees someone wearing sunglasses inside, they assume she's a diva and doesn't talk to her."

"So, you wear them in hopes that no one would talk to you?"

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner."

"So you weren't all that happy I talked to you, huh?"

"Not especially, no," I answered honestly.

"And now?"

I laughed. "I don't mind."

"Well that's good then."

xoxoxox

The rest of the flight went by fast. Dustin and I just say together, making small talk and listened to some of the music on my phone. By the time the flight was over, we were pretty close.

We walked off the plane together when it landed and before we made it out to the actual airport, he stopped me.

"Hey, do you wanna trade numbers?"

"Um, alright." I took out my phone and he took out his. We traded phones so that we could put our own number in the others' phone.

"Awesome thanks."

"Yeah, you too."

We walked out of the terminal together and then down the escalator that lead to the baggage claim, the entrances and a few gift shops.

"Dustin!" I heard a female voice shout.

His head snapped up once he heard this, and I saw a tiny female figure with a mess of blonde hair run at him. He easily caught her in his arms and lifted her up. I take it this was his girlfriend.

"Oh, it's so good to see you," her voice was muffled by his shoulder.

"I missed you," Dustin replied.

We were out of the way of the elevator, and I considered leaving because it felt awkward looking in on a private embrace.

"Oh, Brittney, this is Bella. I met her on the plane," Dustin let go of her and sat her down beside of him.

"Oh, hello," she said sweetly, but I could tell she was confused about why I was still here.

She was very beautiful. Her hair was wavy and layered, her eyes a sparkling green, and she was probably only about 5 feet tall. She was skinny, but curvy, and had a very large chest.

"I swam against his sister one time, and he recognized me. I was just going to keep him company until you got here. My flight out of here is in an hour." I explained.

"Oh, alright. Nice to meet you!" She smiled and stuck out her hand.

"Yeah, you too," I smiled, shaking her head.

"So, where are you going from here?" She asked.

"England, actually."

"Oh, how fun," she smiled. She was a very bubbly person, and her voice was a bit annoying, but she seemed nice.

"Well, I'm gonna go now, it was nice meeting you two," I said, backing away.

"Yeah you two," Dustin smiled.

I got to the elevator which led to where I'd have to get on the plane. When I was about half way up, I looked back and saw Dustin and Brittney. They were huddled together by the baggage claim, laughing, and looking happy.

I couldn't help but feel a slight bang of jealousy looking at them. It wasn't because I liked Dustin, but because they looked so happy. I didn't have anyone to make me happy the same way Dustin clearly made Brittney happy.

Sighing, I turned around and got off of the escalator.

I doubt I'd ever find someone who could care for me that way

xoxoxox

My final flight was the longest, by far.

I didn't have anyone sitting by me, but having spent a long 5 hours minimum in planes today, my ass was just not having it.

After squirming around for probably the first hour of the flight, I finally just gave up, and sat there uncomfortably. I kicked my shoes off, and brought my legs up to my chin to try and get a little more bearable.

I was so bored. I didn't feel like reading, because I was too lazy to move. I could've gotten out my phone and played a game but, again, that would involve moving.

My sunglasses were still on, my headphones in playing A Trophy Fathers Trophy Son by Sleeping With Sirens, and my eyes started to flutter.

I fell asleep.

xoxoxox

The flight attendant had to shake me awake when we landed.

"Excuse me, miss, the flight has landed." The fact that she had a British accent sparked some sort of memory I had and I sat up in a hurry, earning a head rush. But that did not matter.

I was in London, England.

It's about damn time.

I rushed off the plane, getting my carry on items, and rushing to the inside airport.

I don't know what I expected, but I didn't really feel any different. The airport looked similar to ours, just had British flags instead of American ones. But then I heard the voice over the intercom and I couldn't help but giggle like a little girl. I was here, in London, where the people had the best accents, the best tea, and the best taxi cabs.

I walked over to baggage claim and I stood there around about 20 other people to get my two suit cases.

For the first time probably ever, my suit case seemed to be the first one to get around the little track. Grabbing both of my fairly large, zebra print bags, I made my way to the front door. After walking about 5 feet, I realised how hard this was going to be, juggling two carry on items and two very large suit cases. Because of this, I grabbed a little cart, and wheeled my bags out front.

"Hello? Miss Swan?" I heard a voice say from behind me.

Twirling around, I saw a tall and skinny man standing there in a suit. He had short brown hair, a cleanly shaven face, looked to be in his mid 40s, and had his arms folded behind his back.

"Umm, yes?" I asked, not knowing who this man was.

"Hello, my name is Fredrick, and I am to assist you over the course of this summer. I was instructed by your parents, Charlie and Renee, to drive you around if you needed it." He smiled.

My mouth fell open in shock. Mom and dad never told me they were getting me my own _driver_. "Oh, right, okay. Well, I need to get to the loft I'm staying at."

"Sorry, but by loft do you mean a flat?" He asked, grabbing the cart from me.

"Oh, right, yes my flat." I nodded smiling. They call lofts and apartments flats here. I had to get used to using their terminology.

"Well, your parents gave me the address of your flat, so I'll take you right there," he said.

"What time is it right now?" I asked him, looking at my phone. I'd have to set it to the right time.

"It is almost 3 am, Miss Swan." He answered, stopping once we reached a black cab.

_Wow,_ I thought, _there's an 8 hour difference between here and home._

"Oh, call me Bella."

"Of course Miss Bella."

I helped him get the bags into the truck of the cab, even though he insisted I get in the cab and relax, and then once we were done he actually opened my door for me.

"Thank you, Fredrick," I smiled and got into the back seat of the cab.

"I'm just going to bring the trolley up to the main doors of the airport. I'll be right back," he told me, shut the door, and then brought the cart, or _trolley,_ back up to the airport.

I could definitely get used to this.

xoxoxox

I very much enjoyed the car ride to my flat. The view was spectacular.

We got off the highway, and entered the city. Because it was so late the street lights were on and it made the city appear almost magical.

"That's the Statue of Kind Charles the first," he pointed out the window at it, as we went around the road around the statue.

"And that's the Drummond Bank; you can go there if you need to transfer your American dollars into pounds."

"Okay, thanks," I responded, although I doubt I'd need to go there as I had already transferred my money over.

"That's Spring Gardens, and then if you look down this road, here, you can see the tip of Big Ben," he said, pointing out his window.

"Wow, that's amazing. Am I staying around here?" I asked, hopeful.

"Yes actually, we're about 2 minutes away. You're in walking distance from all of this."

"Awesome."

He turned down a street, made a few more turns, and then pulled onto a street that had a few more trees than the others. This one had townhouses down both sides of the street, and he stopped next to a white, giant townhouse, or flat I guess, that had beautiful architecture and a black door.

"Wow, is this it?" I asked, getting out of the car before he could come around and open the door for me.

"Why yes, yes it is," he announced. "Shall I give you a tour before we get your luggage inside?"

"That sounds perfect."

There was no driveway for the flat, just a walkway that was made of stone to get to the door. We walked down it, him in front, and went up the few stairs that lead to the door. There were a few windows on the front of the flat but it was too dark for me to see through. He took a key out of his pocket, unlocked the door and walked through, turning on the lights so that I could see the inside.

"Here we are," he stepped by, letting me in, and handed me the key.

The walls were all made of brick and had very high ceilings. There weren't many walls down here and it was very open concept. To the left of the entrance was a kitchen that looked fully stocked with appliances, and it was separated from the rest of the space by a half wall. In the far right of the float was a set of stairs that lead to what I'm guessing is the bathroom. Down here on the main floor, towards the right side of the long, rectangular room was a large white couch in front of a TV that was attached to a wall, with cool modern chairs surrounding it. There was a tall, small table to the opposite side of the couch and TV, with chairs around it, and I'm assuming that's where I was to eat my meals. By the table were two doors. One led to the laundry room, the other a bathroom. On the wall at the very opposite end of the flat was a giant window with a curtain over it, but I'm assuming that it gave good natural light to the space.

"Wow, this is so nice," I said in awe. It was nothing like I had expected it to be.

"Yeah, it's definitely one of the nicer, smaller places around here. Most places that have this kind of quality to them are either further out of town, or much bigger. You're lucky to have gotten this," he said, looking around.

"Do you want to go get your things, or look upstairs first?" he asked.

"Look upstairs."

He stayed downstairs, sitting on the couch, while I ran up the big set of stairs to see what I'd find.

What I saw was definitely not what I expected.

Downstairs was so modern and casual, in a very cool way, but this was more chic. It was very open concept, just like downstairs, but the walls were white instead of brick, and the floor was white as well. The only things that brought color to the room were the paintings, which were abstract, the chairs that surrounded an actual _fireplace_ which was located to the right of the room, the lamps and the pillows. My mother must have requested it like this, because the accents were all zebra print and red, my favorite pattern and color.

There was lots of floor space, a walk in closet, and a bathroom. The bathroom was much like the bedroom in that it was white with colored accents. The bath sat on the far right side, and I smiled when I saw it. It was a tub separate from the wall and in the shape if a bowl, with a wooden board over part of it. It was designed so that when you have a bath, you can put a book on and maybe a cup of coffee.

"This is so amazing," I laughed as I walked downstairs to see Fredrick who was already there with my bags.

"It is definitely a unique space," he agreed. "Now, I'll just bring these up to your room, and then be gone. I left my card on the coffee table by the couch and I'll be wherever you need me to be, whenever you need me to be if you call, okay?"

"Thank you so much, that's great."

"Also, your parents gave me a list of things they thought you'd need here to eat, so there's food in the fridge. This place is in walking distance of a lot, so you might not need me every day. But your parents did tell me that if I were to not see you for more than 5 days, to come and check on you. Are you ok with that?" He asked.

"Yeah that's fine. I already have the landlord coming to see me and every however many days, so that's no problem," I smiled.

"Well, I'll see you soon than, Miss Bella," he smiled, leaving.

"Bye."

He left, and then I was alone. I took that time to take my headphone out of my phone, play the music aloud, and dance around a bit. I was so happy to be here, that I started jumping around to the beat of Into the Night by Santana, squealing like a little girl.

This was all so much; I couldn't believe that I was finally there, in London, about to have the summer of a lifetime.

Once I realised that it was almost 4 am London time, I went upstairs to my bed. I changed into my pjs, which I strategically placed on top of my smaller suitcase, and texted my parents, Rose, Emmett and Jasper telling them that I was here, safe, and about to go to bed.

I fell asleep before I got any replies.

xoxoxox

I woke up the next morning to the ringing of a phone. I checked my phone to see who was calling, but it wasn't my phone that was ringing. I quickly checked the time to see it was 11 am, but only 3 am Washington time.

Quickly getting out of bed, I ran downstairs to find the source of the phone. I soon saw that my flat did, in fact, have a main line. Picking up the phone I cleared my throat and answered, "Hello?" Trying not to sound as tired as I felt.

"Hello, may I please talk to Alex?" I heard a female British accent ask.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number," I answered politely.

"Oh really, and who is this?" She asked, rudely, sounding like she didn't believe me.

"This is Bella, who are you?" I asked sassily.

"I'm Alex's girlfriend, _Michelle. _Why is an _American_ answering _my _boyfriend's phone? Huh, can you explain _that _to me?"

"Am I not saying this right? There's no one by the name of Alex here. It's just me." I snapped.

There was silence on the other line.

"Are you sure?" She snapped back.

"Pretty damn sure."

"Well then, whatever. Have a good day, I guess," she quickly answered and hung up the phone.

_Is everyone here that crazy?_ I thought, hanging up the phone.

I was wide awake now, so I took this time to unpack my bags. I tackled my smaller one first, placing all the clothes in the closet, my shoes by the front door and the some of the books I put in there on the shelf by my closet. By the time I was finished with that bag, I wanted to say that I was done for now, but I knew it had to get done, so I sucked it up and moved the zipper around the bag so it would open.

What I saw on the top inside was definitely not what I had packed. Sure, my stuff was under neither, but I had never seen any of the things that were crammed at the top, obviously packed at last minute.

There was a white stuffed teddy bear, a book I wanted but was waiting for it to come out in soft cover, flavored _condoms,_ my favorite chocolate bar, body lotion, hair dye, a coffee mug with the British flag on it, and a movie.

I was so shocked at what was in here that I didn't know what I should do. I loved it all, but I had no idea how it would have gotten in here.

But then I saw a red envelope that looked identical to the one that held the letter I got from my friends, that was still in the pocket of the shorts I wore yesterday, and I knew it was all from them.

_Dear Bells,_

_ Hey girl hey, how's it going? Now, we know that you probably don't need any of this stuff, but we thought that if you had them lying around, they could come in handy, and make you think of us._

_ In here from me, Rose, is the book "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" and the movie "Pretty Women". Now, I know you said that you were waiting for it to come out in soft cover, but they books been out in soft cover for years hun, just sayin'. So, I thought it would be a nice thing for you to have. Also, I know it's one of your favorite movies, so I got it for you. Who knows, maybe you'll find a guy who will take you to expensive clothing stores and let you buy whatever you want. Just a thought. I hope you love them!_

_From me, Jasper, is the White Teddy bear with the "I heart All Time Low" shirt and the body lotion. You love stuffed animals and All Time Low, so that one is self explanatory. Now, I know it may seem weird that I got you lotion but it smells like bubble gum, no joke. And I know you love bubble gum. I was going to just get you gum, but Rose wanted to stop in this store, don't know what it's called, to look for soap and stuff. She made me smell this, and I immediately thought of you, so that's why I got it for you. I thought you'd like them._

_From me, Emmett, is the blonde hair dye and the condoms. Hair dye because, honestly, I always thought you'd be hot as a blonde. Not that you aren't hot now or anything, but yeah. You don't have to use it, I guess hair dye like ruins your hair, but I thought it would be cool if you did use it. It's blonder than Rose's hair, because hers has like brown lines in it in some places, too. So it's not like you guys will have the same hair or anything. And I think the condoms are self explanatory. You're hot. You're alone. So you're obviously gonna attract some male attention. They're flavored just because I thought it'd taste better for you ;)_

_And finally, from me, Mr. H, I got you the Hershey's Cookies and Cream chocolate bar, and the mug. I didn't know if they have Hershey chocolate bars there, so that's just in case. And then I saw the mug and instantly thought of you, so I hope you enjoy._

_ We love you and we miss you_

_ - Rose, Jas, Em, and Mr. H_

Shaking my head and laughing, I grabbed my cell phone and dialed Rose's cell number.

"Hello?"

"You guys are crazy!" I laughed.

"OMG Bells, it's 5 in the morning."

"Oh, shit. Is it actually?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, god, I'm sorry. Call me back when you're actually awake."

"Will do Bells. You havin' a good time?" she asked, her voice sleepy.

"I haven't done much, but it's pretty good."

"Well that's good. I love you," I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Love you too, sleep tight girly."

"Yeah, you too," she murmured and hung up the phone, probably already asleep.

I laughed as I hung up mine, and continued to put my things away. Just as I was finishing with the suit case and putting my underwear, bras and socks in separate drawers, I heard a knock on my front door.

I walked down stairs and I looked out of the peep hole to see a tall, strongly built man in a suit. He had short brown hair and a smile on his face.

I opened the door, "Hello?"

He looked me up and down and I suddenly realised I was only in shorts and a tank top from bed last night. Oh well, this guy was like twice my age. I didn't have to try and impress him.

"Hello, I'm your landlord." He announced in a very strong accent, and stuck out his hand.

"Oh, hey, I'm Bella," I smiled and shook his hand.

"I won't take up much of your time. I just wanted you to recognize my face when I came by. Your parents asked me to come by twice a month to check on you and see if you're keeping the place clean. I'm Alex by the way."

_Alex,_ I thought.

"Hey, I know this may sound weird, but do you have a girlfriend named Michelle by any chance?"

"Yeah, why? How'd you know?"

"Oh, a girl named Michelle called here and asked for an Alex. I told her it was the wrong number, and it might not have anything to do with you. But if it did, I just thought I'd let you know.

"Yeah, thanks for telling me. I'll ask her"

"Okay, bye."

"Bye, Bella, have a good day," he said as he walked down the pathway.

"You too," I responded as I shut the door.

_Let's hope that if it was his girlfriend, he's not as crazy as her._

xoxoxox

By 3 o'clock pm my time, 7 am Rose's time, I figured it was time for me to do something.

I showered, let my hair down, and put on a bit of makeup. A new pair of dark jeaned shorts I got with Rose was the first ones I got my hands on, so I put those on and wore my You Me At Six shirt to match. I figured it was warm enough, so I didn't put on a sweater. Running down the stairs to the kitchen, realising I didn't eat anything yet, I had an orange. I grabbed my purse, my wallet, my phone, its headphones and my sunglasses, and left the house, locking the door behind me.

The walk itself was uneventful at first, but I loved what I was seeing.

Fredrick was right in saying it was a very short walk to where he pointed out the bank and the statue. I walked along the sidewalk with both of my headphones in my ears playing Crash by You Me At Six. I crossed the cross walk and just as I was turning a corner to go down a street, I looked down at my phone, and collided right into someone.

"Ouch," I muttered. I fell right on my ass just as the other person did.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." he said looking down and picking up his coffee cup, so I couldn't see his face.

"No, it's my fault, I wasn't looking. Let me buy you another coffee," I insisted. His accent was amazing and had a sexy roughness to it that made me want to swoon, but I was too embarrassed.

"Oh, I wasn't looking either. And it was already empty," he looked up at me, and offered me a hand in getting up. I took it couldn't help but notice how soft his hands were.

He was wearing black sunglasses so I couldn't see his eyes, but he was very attractive everywhere else. He has messy copper colored hair, was very tall, and he was wearing a tight, gray t shirt, making ilook very obvious he was fit.

"I'm Edward," he smiled sticking out his hand.

"Bella," I smiled back, shaking his hand.

"Are you American?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Are you visiting?"

"I'm here on vacation, by myself."

"That's fun, how old are you?"

"17, you?"

"Holy shit, I wasn't allowed anywhere alone when I was 17. I'm 20 now."

We continued walking down the sidewalk. We were going in the direction he was coming from, but he either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Oh, alright. My parents just trust me I guess," I shrugged. _Well damn,_ I thought. _He was so hot but he probably just thought I was a little kid._

"That's good. Where are you headed?"

"I was just going to roam around. I just got here last night," I explained.

"Where from in the US?"

"Well, I flew here from New York, but I'm from Washington."

"Wow, you must have major jet leg," he laughed.

"Not really, actually. My sleeping schedule was pretty shitty in the first place."

We stopped walking once we reached a small cafe. "Did you want some coffee? It's the least I could do after bumping into you," he asked.

"Sure, why not. But I'll take a hot chocolate, I hate coffee."

"How can someone hate coffee?" he laughed. "It's the only thing that's kept me energized the past little while."

"I just find it really bitter," I explained.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to make you get used to it some time," he laughed and then ordered me a large hot chocolate.

I couldn't help but sigh in happiness to myself, though, knowing he wanted to see me again.

This might turn out to be an even better summer than I originally thought.

**That's all for now. I wasn't originally going to put Edward in this chapter, but I figured I might as well, because I don't know when I'll get to update next. School starts tomorrow, and I might be going to nationals for the sport I play, so I'll be doing homework, and studying, and running, and working out like crazy. But, I hope to get up a new chapter soon. **

**Please let me know what you thought!**

**~Bailey**


	4. Young Wild & Free

"You can grab a seat for us while I'm waiting for it," Edward advised me.

"Alright," I smiled.

I turned on my heel and went to find a table for us to sit at. Him telling me to go sit shouldn't have made me as happy as it did, but it told me that he wanted to spend more time with him. Especially because he said it was a table for us, as opposed to just me. I barely knew him, but he seemed nice, he was buying me a hot chocolate, he was very handsome even if I haven't seen his eyes yet, and his rough voice was sexy.

I took the two-seater by the window for us, and sat down. I slipped my purse off, put it on the table, and moved my sunglasses so they were on top of my head. As I was doing so, he came over and put my cup of hot chocolate, which had whipped cream on it too, in front of me.

"There you go," he smiled at me, as he sat down across from me.

"Thank you very much. You didn't have to do this, you know," I smiled as I took a drink out of it.

"Oh, it's not a big deal. What were you listening to?" he asked, motioning to my phone. I had the headphones going up the inside of my shirt so that when they weren't in my ears they were hanging just out of the collar of my shirt.

"You Me At Six. They're one of my favorite bands," I explained.

"Yeah, I like them too. What else do you listen to?"

"Um, All Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens, You Me At Six, Of Mice and Men, Pierce the Veil, and ADTR are my favorites. How about you?"

"I like them all too. As well as Of Mice & Men, Three Days Grace, Bring Me to the Horizon, Mumford and Sons, and Memphis May Fire." He answered, ticking them off with his long, white fingers.

"No way, I love all of them too," I laughed. "I've never met anyone who even knows BMTH."

"Yeah same here. It gets frustrating when people only know artists who are on the radio and in the tabloids."

"I feel the exact same way," I said in shock. "It just makes me want to hit people over the head because there's so much more out there."

"I know!" he laughed, and I joined in, taking a drink of my hot chocolate.

He then asked, "So, why London?"

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"Why did you want to come to London?" He clarified.

"Well, I don't think there is really a straight forward answer to that. I guess it's everything. Ever since I was young I've wanted to come here. I kind of just painted a picture of what I thought it would be like in my head."

"And what was in that picture?"

"Me. That's pretty vague, I know. But I just pictured me, here, happy," I shrugged.

He looked at me for a bit and asked, "Are you not happy in Washington?"

"No, don't get me wrong, I love home. I have 3 friends I couldn't live without, parents that love me, and a lot of freedom. It's just that, I don't feel like I'm ever going to be ... complete if I stay there."

He just nodded his head as if he understood completely.

"Although, I don't know why I'm telling you this. I doubt it makes any sense," I blushed.

"Oh, it's fine. I get it, really. I like hearing about other people's lives. I'm so used to people talking about me and what I'm doing that it's refreshing hearing about other people," he laughed.

"I understand that. So, you live here?" I asked, drinking more of my drink.

"Born and raised, yeah," he nodded.

"You're lucky, it's beautiful here."

"It's not as glamorous as it may seem, trust me. It gets very boring very fast. What's Washington like?"

"Cold," I laughed. "It can actually get so cold that I can barely walk because my legs get so numb. It's terrible. It's pretty boring as well, but I guess I don't mind it too much."

"Well, that's good. Is there anything you wanted to do while you were here?"

"I guess I wanted to do some of the touristy stuff; see Big Ben, go on a double Decker bus, see Westminster Abbey, go to the Buckingham palace, you know, maybe see the Kind and Queen," I joked, knowing the chances of me evening seeing them are slim, let alone meeting them

He rolled his eyes, "They aren't all they're cracked up to be."

I looked at him in shock. "You've met them?"

"I guess you could say that, yeah," he laughed lightly, scratching the back of his head.

I nodded my head. "That's pretty cool."

"I guess."

I took a drink and then asked, "Why are you still wearing your sunglasses, when we're inside?" I wasn't judging, I was just curious.

"Um, I guess I just like wearing them. I don't really know," he laughed shakily, running his hand through his fairly long copper hair.

"Oh, okay," I mumbled, taking a drink. I wanted him to take them off, so that I could see his eyes.

"Well," he said, looking down at his watch. "I have to be somewhere, but if you want I could show you around sometime."

"Um, yeah, sure. That'd be good," I smiled.

"Let me see your phone."

I handed over my phone and he put his number in it. "I don't have mine on me, but I texted it so that I know you're number, and I'll text you sometime when I'm not doing anything. It's Monday tomorrow, but I could probably do something."

"That sounds good, thanks," I smiled, taking my phone back.

"It was nice meeting you, Bella," he smiled at me, making my sigh.

"Yeah, you too," I responded as he stood up, and left the shop.

Sighing, and smiling, I took my now empty cup up to the counter and gave it to the girl who was behing it, "Here."

"Thanks! Is there anything else you wanted?" She asked, smiling. She has orange hair, down straight and a freckled face. She was very pretty.

"I'll take a bottled water to go, thanks," I smiled back.

"Sure, no problem."

As she was ringing it in, she looked up and asked, "Was he your boyfriend?"

Shocked, I quickly shook my head. "Oh, no. I just met him."

"Oh, okay. I was just wondering because he's in here almost every day, and I've never seen him with anyone before," she explained.

"Oh, it's no problem."

"So, you're visiting?"

"Yeah, I'm on vacation."

"Oh, cool. You here alone?" she asked. She already handed me the water, which I paid for, but since there was no one else in line, we kept talking.

"Yeah, I am. I just got here yesterday."

"Very cool. So, how old are you?"

"I'll be 18 in September," I answered, pushing my bangs out of my face. "You?"

"I just turned 19. I'm Ginny by the way."

I looked her up and down, smiling. She had orange hair, a ton of freckles, a round shaped head and kind eyes. She matched Ginny Wesley, from Harry Potter, perfectly.

"Of course you are," I laughed. "I'm Bella."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. You have any plans for the day?" She asked.

"No," I shook my head, "no plans, I was just going to roam around and see what there is."

"Well, I'm off in 10 minutes, if you wanted to hang out for a bit?"

I was a bit shocked at her offer. No one really back at home would talk to me, let alone ask me to hang out with them after only talking to them for a few minutes. Must be a British thing, I thought to myself, having no other explanation.

Smiling, I agreed. I was beginning to really like it here. I've been out maybe half an hour, and I had a hot guys' number in my phone and I was going to do something with a new friend, Ginny.

xoxoxox

When Ginny was done with work, 10 minutes later like she said, she drove us back to her place for a bit so that she could change. I probably should have been more concerned about being alone in a car, and then to her house, alone with someone I barely knew. But I knew that I'd have to make some friends while I was here, or else I'd go insane.

It wasn't a long drive to her flat, but we took the time to figure out little details about each other by playing 20 questions.

She started.

"Favorite color?"

"Red. Favorite movie?"

"That's a hard one. Probably The Breakfast Club? I don't know, I love the classics. Favorite song?"

Oh gosh. "How long do you have? I'd be easier for me to name my favorite artist."

"Go for it."

"All Time Low. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?"

"Australia. Play any instruments?"

"Some guitar, but not very much. Fave TV show?"

"Friends. Favorite book?" she asked, turning down another street.

"Looking for Alaska by John Green and the whole Harry Potter series. Where do you go to University?"

"I'm taking a gap year. Where are you from?"

"Washington State. Single?"

"Nope, I have a boyfriend. Play any sports?"

"I swim and surf. Any roommates?"

"3, actually. Two guys and another girl. Where do you want to go to school?"

"Columbia, Oxford and Harvard are my dream schools." I was going to ask her another question, when we pulled into the driveway of her flat.

"Now, it might be a bit messy, but it shouldn't be too bad," she warned.

"Oh, it's fine. I'm used to mess," I laughed.

"So, I live with Rob, Tim and Ellen. They've been my friends for forever, but they're all going to school. They probably aren't here."

"Alright."

We got out of her car and walked through her front door, her going first so that she could unlock it.

"So, yeah, this is it."

We walked right into a living room, and there was a long hallway towards the right side of the room. There was a little kitchen to the far right of the room, before the hallway. And then to the direct left of the entrance door there was a TV with a long, plush couch, and 2 matching chairs. Similar to my place, it was very open concept with very few walls. However, unlike my place, the walls were white with some art work, instead of brick.

"Homey," I smiled, honestly. "I like it."

"Thanks," she laughed. "Here, we can just go to my room and I can show you around."

She pointed out the living room, TV room and kitchen, which I could already see. And then, down the hallway, she opened up every door so that I could see what they were.

"Rob's room," she opened the first door on the right. It was big, with a simple double bed, green walls, a large TV on the far wall, and a desk with a laptop.

"Ellen's room," she announced as she opened the first door on the left. It was the same size and shape as Rob's, but it has light orange walls, a queen bed, a smaller TV, and no desk.

"The bathroom," she said, opening the second door on the right. It was a generic bathroom, a simple bath, toilet, sink and a small closet.

"Tim's room," she opened the second door on the left. His room was slightly bigger than the others. They had blue walls, a queen bed with white bed spreads, a guitar case leaning against his tall, black desk, and a TV on the wall opposite his bed.

"The laundry room," she opened the final door the right side. Nothing significant about it, really. It had a washer, a dryer and a rack to lay clothes on.

"And, finally, my room," she smiled, opening the last door on the left. Her room was the biggest of the others, and by far the best. She had one blue wall, matching the color of Tim's, one light orange wall, matching Ellen's room, one green wall, matching Rob's, and one red wall. She had a queen bed, with a white comforter, and had a blanket spread out over it. My mouth opened when I saw what was on it. It was a bunch of fabrics sown together, all the fabrics containing the name of a band. I saw You Me At Six, All Time Low, The Maine, Breathe Carolina, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, A Day To Remember, Ed Sheeran, The Pretty Reckless and as well as many others. She has clothes all over her floor, and a door was opened, revealing a bathroom.

"Oh my god," I whispered in awe.

"You like it?" she asked, going to her closet.

"Do I like it? Oh my god, yes, I love it! I'm so jealous. Like, your blanket? And your walls? I love it so much," I laughed, going over to her bed and jumping up on it.

"Well, thanks," she laughed back. She quickly changed her work shirt into a black Pierce the Veil shirt, and her work pants to a pair of dark short shorts. "I got the big room because I'm here more, I found the place, and I pay more rent then the other because I'm not in school yet,"

"Well, that makes sense. I've never met anyone who liked these bands as much as I do," I said, looking at her blanket.

"Yeah, same here. My flatmates and my boyfriend make fun of my sometimes. But, I can't help it. Especially when it comes to the Fuentes brothers from Pierce the Veil," she laughed, swooning a little bit.

"I know what you mean! I've always had a soft spot for Vic, but I'm totally marrying Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low and Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens someday," I teased, laughing.

"Oh, both are you? Well, you go girl," she winked.

"So, what are we doing?" I asked, getting up off her bed.

"Well, I thought we could head to mine my boyfriend's for a bit. Don't worry; you won't be a third wheel or anything. He has like 5 flatmates, all pretty hot if I do say so myself. And then we'll probably go out tonight somewhere. Sound good? We could always do something else," she quickly reassured, but that sounded fine.

"Yeah, that's cool. Maybe you could set me up," I teased. I felt oddly close with this girl, having only just met her. It was weird but I was glad I managed to make such a fast friend.

"Well, let's go. It's not far, just a short drive."

Together, Ginny and I drove down the road, and down a few more streets. She pointed out a few things along the way, such as her best friend Peyton's house, the building where she saw Ed Sheeran live way before he became well known or popular, and her favorite record store. There were simple places, but she was so animated with how she described them, that I couldn't help but feel somewhat attached to them myself, even though I had never been in them myself.

"Just down this street here," she pointed after a little bit.

We walked down a street slightly different than mine and hers. This one held actual houses, as opposed to townhouses and apartment buildings.

"They live in a house, because there's so many of them," she explained, as if reading my thoughts.

"That makes sense. What are they like?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Well, my boyfriend, Harry, is –"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," I interjected, incredulously. "You're boyfriend's name is actually Harry?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Harry and Ginny from Harry Potter. So funny, I get it. Anyway, he's tall and funny and wants to be a musician. He's attending school though, and is getting a degree in business, just as a backup for him in case his band doesn't work out.

"Then there's Jeffrey, or Jeff. He's tall too, with almost sparkling green eyes. He's Harry's little brother, and only just graduated high school. He doesn't get along very well with his parents, so he's living with him for now. But, he got accepted to a Uni in Ireland, so he'll be moving there soon with his girlfriend, Lana.

"Alex is the oldest of them, and by far the most mature. He plays some basketball, and just graduated from Uni. He's fairly attractive, but his personality definitely makes up for what he doesn't have.

"Louis, who's my age, is without a doubt one of the biggest flirts you will ever meet. He's a player, but he really is a nice guy. His eyes are violet and he has blonde hair, which I think is pretty cool. Not so much the hair part, but his eyes are fairly pretty.

"And finally, there's Charly, or Chuck as we call him. He's barely there, because he's always at his girlfriend's flat, but he's pretty cool. I doubt he'll be there now, but he might be. He's the shy one of the group, and the sweetest. I mean, beside's my boyfriend of course." She laughed as she pulling into a driveway and parked the car.

"Wow. Sounds like a full house," I laughed with her.

"It pretty much is."

She knocked twice in the door and then let herself in, letting myself trailing behind her.

Their place was very similarly shaped to Ginny's, except bigger and there was stairs leading up towards the rooms instead of a hallway.

"Hey guys!" Ginny announced.

"Hey babe," a tall, curly haired blonde came over and hugged her. "Who's this?"

"Oh, this is Bella. I met her today at work. She's an American," she explained, motioning to me.

"Hey, it's nice to meet you," I smiled, putting my hand out for him to shake.

"Oh, there's no need to be formal here. I'm Harry," he smiled, hugging me.

The three of us went to sit down on his large leather sofa, and we talked about, well, me.

"So, Bella, what brings you to London?" Harry asked.

"The accents," I teased.

They both laughed, and then I said, "Well, I've just always wanted to come here."

"I get that. How long are you here for?"

"Until August. I'm here for the whole summer."

"Well, isn't that exciting? What are you planning on doing while you're here?"

I thought about that for a bit. "I'm not really sure, exactly. Just have fun, do touristy stuff, and meet new people, because I hate most of the people back in Washington. I don't really know. I just want to have a summer I'll always remember," I shrugged.

Harry nodded, his bangs falling into his eyes. "Well, we weren't planning on doing much today, so you might be a little bored."

"I won't get bored," I reassured him.

"Well, alright, so what are we going to be doing?" Ginny asked, looking up at Harry.

She sat beside him on the sofa, and they looked like complete opposites. Harry was tall, with platinum blonde hair, hazel eyes and was really skinny. Ginny, on the other hand, was fairly short, just a few inches shorter than I, orange hair, brown eyes, and she was curvy. Definitely not fat, not anywhere near fat, but she wasn't skinny either. They both looked so different, but they both looked perfect together.

"Hey guys, what's ... oh, who's this?" A very tall guy, who looked to be a bit older than Ginny and Harry, asked, coming down the stairs.

"I'm Bella," I waved slightly, smiling.

"Alex," he responded, nodding at me in a way of greeting. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, we're trying to figure that out ourselves." Harry responded.

"Maybe we could go to our place later?" Alex suggested.

"Your place? I thought you lived here?" I asked in confusion.

"No no, our other place. Don't worry, you'll see. That's a great idea. Is everyone here?" Harry asked Alex.

"Yeah, Chuck isn't but that isn't abnormal. Do you want me to go get them?" Alex asked, turning slightly towards the stairs.

Harry looked at his watch. "Well, it's almost 5. By the time we get everything packed, Bella gets her stuff and get over there it'll be around 7. And we need it to still be light out when we get there, so yeah, we can get ready now."

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked.

"_We_ are going to show you just how it really works around here with us," Ginny smiled.

"Bella?" Alex asked.

I turned towards and asked, "Yes?"

"Do you like camping?"

xoxoxox

Ginny drove me back to my place so that I could get some things, but she refused to tell me where we're going.

"Wow, nice place," she commented as we walked into my flat.

"Thanks," I smiled.

We both went up to my room, and I asked, "What kind of bag do I need?"

"Do you have a gym bag?" she asked.

"No, but I have a book bag" I said, holding it up. "Will that work?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Now, you'll need long trousers, like sweats or leggings, pajamas, maybe a pair of shorts for tomorrow, a t-shirt or two, a sweater, a hair brush, your toothbrush. Just pack an overnight bag, I don't really know what you like to wear, but bring some warm things."

"Um, alright," I laughed, grabbing the necessary items. I plugged my phone in as I did so, so that it would be fully charged for whatever we were going to be doing tonight.

"And, you aren't going to tell me what we are going to be doing?" I asked, as I grabbed a sweater, folded it, and put it in my bag.

"You' figure it out soon enough. Do you trust me?" she asked, perched on my bed.

"I don't know why I do, but yes. It's weird for me though, considering we just met and all."

"Well, I like you, so I don't see anything wrong with it," she mumbled as she flipped through a magazine.

"I like you, too," I said back.

After I packed my bag, I was just about to tell her that we could go, when my phone rang.

"Hello?" I asked without looking at my caller ID.

"Bella!" I heard a female voice say on the other line.

"Hey, Rose, how are you?" I asked, sitting on the bed by Ginny.

"I'm okay, but the real question is how is London?"

"It's actually going really great already. I've already met people."

"Wow, Bella's being social," she teased.

"Oh, shush," I joked.

She laughed. "But, really, how is it? Meet any hot guys?"

I blushed and cleared my throat, fidgeting.

She gasped. "Oh my gosh, you did! Tell me about him, what's his name, what does he look like?"

I looked over at Ginny, but she was distracted by a magazine. I didn't want her to overhear this part, so I went into the bathroom to answer Rose and back up a few toiletries. Once I had the door closed, I said, "His name is Edward."

"Oh my, that's quite the old fashioned name. Does he prefer Ed or Eddie?" she asked.

"He didn't say. He just introduced himself as Edward. I just met him today so I don't all that much about him," I confessed

"Oh, well, that makes sense. What do you know?"

"Well, he's 20. He likes all the same type of music I do. He's so hot, like oh my goodness." I laughed as I grabbed my toiletries.

"Wow he sounds amazing. What does he look like, you gotta give me some details!" she insisted.

"He's tall, muscular and has like, longish copper colored hair. He's actually one of the most good looking guys I've even seen!" I gushed.

"Oh my, well, as soon as you can I need a picture of this guy!"

"I will," I laughed. "I need to go, me and a friend are going out."

"Alright Bells, I'll talk to you later!" she sang.

"See ya Rose." I sang back.

I grabbed the small bag I packed of my toiletries and walked out of my room to see Ginny still sitting on my bed, still reading the magazine. When she heard the door open, however, she looked up.

She asked, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I am."

I grabbed my phone charger, my bag, and put my Toms back on. We walked back out to her car after I locked the door, and we drove away.

"So, you said you liked camping right?" she clarified, as we pulled onto a main road.

"Yes I do," I nodded.

"Okay, that's good," she nodded back.

On the car ride down there wasn't a lot of talking. We just sat there in a comfortable silence and listened to the radio. Ginny admitted to me that she actually didn't keep any CDs in her car, so we listened to a local radio station that she said didn't play that bad of music.

"There is a lot of "pop-y" stuff, but they do play good stuff as well," she explained as she turned her radio on.

The Almost's song Say This Sooner was playing.

We quietly sang along to the radio as Ginny drove me to this unknown destination. In the back of my head I knew that I should have thought it was unsafe or weird that I was going camping with a bunch of strangers, but I knew in my head and my heart that I could trust these guys.

I was so glad that I managed to meet people so soon that I liked.

xoxoxox

The ride there was about an hour long. Wherever "there" was.

When we were still on the highway, Ginny suddenly pulled onto a little dirt path that was surrounded by so many trees, I would've missed it if she didn't pull down it.

The road was dirty and rocky, and I doubted that her beat up car could make it down the road. But surprisingly, it did.

It was about another 20 minutes down the drive, by then it was fairy dark outside, and I saw the cars of the other guys.

They started setting up tents in a little clearing surrounded by trees, bushes and darkness. It was small, yet the perfect size. There were about 6 small tents being set up in a circle formation. They set them up so that there was a gap in the middle big enough for the campfire, and the lawn chairs that were already set up. The cars they took were along the side of the dirt road.

Ginny beeped the horn of the car twice quickly to announce our arrival, and parked the car behind those of the others.

We got out and made our way to the center of where the tents were being set up, and everyone came to greet us.

"Hey girls," Harry greeted.

"Hey Harry," Ginny smiled and hugged him, while I just waved.

Harry took the liberty of going around and introducing me to Jeff, Louis, Chuck, and the girlfriends.

They were all like what I pictured them to be by Ginny's description.

Also, they were all much taller than I was, and all very strongly built, except Chuck who was slightly lankier than the rest.

Jeff had green sparkling green eyes, just as Ginny said, and short, light brown hair. He was there with his girlfriend, Lana, who was visiting from Ireland for a few weeks since Jeff couldn't afford the trip out there.

Lana was short, shorter than me, with blonde hair cut short in a bob and brown eyes.

Louis reminded me of Jasper in way. He had almost the same style of haircut, with the same color hair, but he was shorter than him. He greeted me with a wink, a dramatic bow, and a kiss on my hand. He wasn't as attractive, in my opinion, as Jasper, but his violet eyes were mesmerizing and I could probably stare into them for days.

Chuck was definitely the most shy of the group, but his smile was contagious and his voice kind. He was the closeted to my height of them all, and his black hair was hanging in his face. His arm was wrapped protectively around his girlfriend, Kelsey, who was a head shorter than him and had the biggest blue eyes I had ever seen.

Lindsey, Alex's girlfriends, was with Kelsey, and she was very polite. She was the shortest of them all, which I thought was cute since Alex was the tallest, and was obviously wearing a men's shirt, probably Alex's. She had long dirty blonde hair, tied up in a messy pony tail, and had kind brown eyes.

Once I had been properly introduced to everyone, I noticed that it was now dark outside. I would've been scared of being out here in the dark, except it wasn't very dark. Alex, whom I had already met earlier, and Ginny hung up multiple lanterns all around the clearing on the trees that were surrounding the tents giving the area a slight glow.

"Wow," I laughed.

"Yeah, I know," Kelsey agreed, as she sat on a lawn chair "That was my reaction the first time I came out here."

"Do they come out here a lot?" I asked as Harry and Louis lighted the fire.

"All the time, yeah. At least one weekend a month. No offense, but I was really surprised when I heard you were coming along. Normally they have a rule that no one else, but important girlfriends, are allowed out here. I guess the 5 guys discovered this place on day when they were hiking. Ginny and Harry must really like you, if they're inviting you out here after just meeting you today," She smiled, letting me know that she meant no harm in what she said; she was just honestly surprised.

"Wow, I had no idea," I smiled back, taking no offense in what she said.

All the guys, and Ginny, Lana and Lindsey came around and claimed their chairs. They told me that they have a usual set up of how they sit, and that I was to sit between Ginny and Louis. I laughed when Louis wiggled his eyebrows at me and patted the arm of the chair next to him.

I sat down, grabbed a blanket Ginny handed me, curled up in a ball and looked around.

"What's your poison?" Jeff asked me.

"Oh," I shook my head quickly, "I don't drink."

"You kind of have to," Harry interrupted. "None of us really drink a lot, but it's tradition. You don't have to get drunk, and you can mix it with juice if you want, but if you drink around the campfire, it has to be alcohol."

"Um, okay, what do you have?" I asked.

Jeff looked in the cooler he had and named off what was in it. "Vodka, Whisky, there's only a little Jack Daniel's left, Baileys, some beer and," he reached in to grab something, "champagne."

"I'll have some whiskey, please," I smiled and grabbed the bottle and the glass Louis handed me, and poured some for myself.

"So, Bella," Alex looked at me smiling, "how did you and Ginny become acquainted?"

I handed Louis the bottle and answered, "I met her when she was working."

"She was there with the red-headed, sunglasses guy," she added as if that meant something.

The group made a collective "oooh" sound, as if her addition made sense.

"Who, Edward?" I asked.

"You know his name?" Harry asked, amazed.

"Why is he such a big deal?" I asked, very confused.

"Ginny's been talking about this guy for I don't know how long. He come in everyday, gives her a huge tip, and sits and drinks his coffee, and then leaves. He never comes with anyone, he never talks to anyone but Ginny at the cash register, and he turns down every girl who tries to talk to him," Louis explained.

"Your point being?" I asked, still confused.

"No one knows who this guy is. He always wears sunglasses, always keep his head down, it's like he's hiding something," Ginny explained, dramatically.

"How do you all know all of this?" I asked.

"Ginny, mostly, but we've all seen him once or twice," Alex added.

"You guys are crazy!" I laughed.

"What I don't understand though, is how you managed to go with him," Ginny continued as if I didn't say anything. "No offense or anything. But he's been going there since before I worked there."

"Well, I don't know. We literally ran into each other. I guess he felt bad or something, although I don't know why he would. I don't see the big deal," I shrugged.

"Are you going to see him again?" Kelsey asked, taking a sip of her small glass of vodka and cranberry juice.

I shrugged again and took a sip of my drink, cringing from how strong it was, "Well we traded number so maybe, yeah. He offered to give me a tour of London."

Kelsey, Lana and Ginny all squealed in excitement, annoying me and slightly scaring me.

"Will you guys stop?" I asked, laughing, trying not to sound rude even though I really just wanted to tell them all to shut up.

Chuck, obviously noticing this, changed the subject by asking Ginny how long it was until her and Harry's anniversary.

"Two weeks," she answered excitedly. I was just noticing how much of a bubbly person she was, and I surprisingly didn't mind it. She was pretty much the exact opposite from me in that way.

"How long have you been together?" I asked.

"It'll be 4 years. I can't believe we've been together that long," she smiled, look up at Harry. They scooted their lawn chairs close together so her head was close enough to rest on his shoulders. I noticed that Jeff and Lana, and Chuck and Kelsey have done the same.

"Wow, that's a long time," I said in amazement. I'd no doubt get tired of someone after dating for 4 years.

"Yeah," Harry said, "but it's all been fun."

"Do you have a boyfriend back in America, Bella?" Alex asked.

"No, I don't. I don't really like people," I smiled honestly.

They all laughed at me for that, and then Lana asked, quite seriously, "Do you believe in love?"

I licked my lips, took a mouth full of whiskey and answered honestly, "No not really."

Everyone just stared at me for a bit as if I had 3 heads, and I quickly added, "Let me explain that.

"See, I don't believe in soul mates or love at first sight or any of that stuff. What I do believe in, though, is true love. Because I've seen it. The difference to me is that nothing can break true love. You're together and you always will be. If it's not true love, it won't last. And if it doesn't last, it's not love," I shrugged.

Everyone took a moment to process that and then Kelsey said, calmly, "That makes sense to me."

To which everyone else nodded and we went on to have more casual conversations.

xoxoxox

6 hours and 7 glasses of whiskey later, I was very drunk.

It was after 1 am, and we were all still around the campfire, playing music loudly. Louis explained to me that Alex was in charge of the music because he's the eldest and is the one that bought the docking station for his iPod.

I was sitting back in my chair, giggling to myself, when Ginny suddenly stood up and said, "Oh this is my song!"

Young, Wild, and Free was playing by Wiz Khalifa. Ginny grabbed my and Harry's hand, making us stand up, and told everyone else to come and dance. We all bunched together by my, Ginny's and Louis' chair, and we danced.

It was messy and crazy but it was also fun and exciting. Harry and Ginny were grinding, as were Lana and Jeff, and Alex and Lindsey. Kelsey and Chuck were dancing together, but they kept it at more of a PG level. Being the only two without dance partners, Louis and I teamed up in a messy half-grind-half-too-drunk-to-stand-up-properly ... thing.

I had both of my hand above my head, one of them containing a whisky bottle, and I was swaying my hips to the beat of the song, as Louis stood behind me, swaying his hips in tune with mine.

As the chorus started playing again, I, and everyone else, belted out the lyrics. I moved so that me and Louis were now facing each other and we were jumping up and down like maniacs.

_So what we get drunk?  
So what we smoke weed?  
We're just having fun  
We don't care who sees  
So what we go out?  
That's how it's supposed to be  
Living young and wild and free_

Louis and I were the only ones that took that time to act, well, young wild and free. Because we weren't a couple, we didn't dance seductively, like everyone else, and we had fun. We tripped over each others' feet and laughed and by the time the song ended, I was all out of breath.

Before I sat down, Louis bowed at me, and I gave him a little curtsey, almost falling over because I bended a bit too low. I fell into my chair, laughing, and breathing heavily.

It was almost 2 am, and I was about to ask what time they usually headed to bed, when my phone rang.

Taking it out of my pocket, I slurred a greeting, "Hellooooo?"

"Hello, Bella?" asked a familiar British voice.

"Umm, yeaaaah. Who's thissss?" I asked giggling.

"It's Edward, from earlier today? At the coffee shop? Is this a bad time?"

**This is exactly what I was scared of happening. I'm so sorry this took so long to get up. I've just been going through so much lately. With school, not always having my laptop at hand, and Tumblr being very distracting, it took longer than I planned to get this up. For that, I am sorry. **

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know how next chapter is going to go, kinda, and I think I'm going to love drunk Bella. Let me know what you think my leaving a review, please, and I hope you enjoy your week. **

**~Bailey**


	5. Lost In You

"Oooooooooh, Edward!" I slurred.

"Uhm, yeah. It's me," he cleared his throat. "Is this a bad time?"

"Oh no, not at all," I answered, mocking his British accent, very poorly. "Just hangin' with me ole chaps!"

Everyone I was with was now listening intently to my conversation with the ever so mysterious "red headed sunglasses guy", and they were now laughing at my bad attempt at the accent.

"Oh, is that right? Are you ok?" He asked, chuckling.

"Oh yea, I'm fine. Perfectly fine even. What about you? Why are you calling me at," I took my phone away from my ear and squinted at the time, "almost 3 am?"

He cleared his throat again, and an image of him running his hands through his hair came to my mind.

"Well, you see, I wasn't expecting you to answer, and ... Bella. Are you drunk?"

"Oh, you know," I waved my hand in the air, making it seem like I was waving it off, "just a little."

"Bella," he said seriously. "Where are you?"

"I don't know."

"But you're drunk?"

"Very," I hiccupped and giggled.

"And you're with people you barely know?"

"Hey I know them!" I hiccupped again.

He's sighed in what sounded like frustration. "Who are you with?"

"We'll there's Ginny, Harry, Louis, Alex, Lindsey, Chuck, Kelsey, Jeff, and Lana," I smiled proudly as I pointed to each of them.

I was now slumped in my chair and I had my right arm raised above my head, hanging over the back of the chair.

"You'll call me if anything goes wrong?"

I hiccupped and giggled again as I answered, "Will do! So, you were calling ... Why?"

"I was just, uhm, I couldn't sleep. Then I remembered you and how I said we could do something tonight. I thought I'd just get your voicemail so that you could call me back. I wasn't expecting you to actually answer..." He trailed off, sounding embarrassed.

I placed a hand over my heart dramatically and smiled. "You were thinking of meeeeee?"

All the girls around the campfire squealed again, but it didn't annoy me because I was doing it internally with them. All the guys just rolled their eyes, shook their head, and pretended to not be interested.

"Well, I mean, yeah I guess I was," he mumbled.

My cheeks were starting to hurt from how wide I was grinning, and I asked, "So, tomorrow ... I mean tonight?"

"What about it?"

"When are you going to give me a tour of London?"

"Oh, uhm, whenever. I'm not doing anything tonight. You can just call me whenever you're home and safe."

I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly. "I'm safe, I promise."

"Don't worry Eddie! She's safe here," Ginny laughed as she stole my phone.

"Hey! Give it back!" I shouted and stood up quickly as she tossed my phone, over the fire, to Kelsey

"She's in safe hands," Kelsey said into the phone as I ran, or rather stumbled, around the fire to get it back. But then she threw it to Jeff.

"We're all friends," he laughed and then tossed it to Alex.

I tried to quickly make my way around the fire to get to him, but my head was getting heavy, and everything now had a double.

The last thing I remember was my phone being tossed to Lana, and my foot tripping over something, before everything went dark.

xoxoxox

"What the fuck?"

"What happened?"

"Is she alive?"

"She's breathing!"

"Oh thank god!"

"Edward is freaking out."

"Tell him she'll be ok."

I could hear the voices before I could see where they're coming from.

Slowly, I flickered my eyes open to see 9 heads hovered over me, staring at me.

"Woooooah!" I slurred, obviously still very drunk. I then started laughing.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked, looking worried.

"Oh, yeeeeah. For suuuure. I'm so okay right now guys," I giggled.

"Are you sure you're okay? You took a nasty fall! You tripped over Louis' beer bottle," Lana explained.

Well that explains how I fell, I thought.

"Oh, no guys I'm fine. I'm just clumsy. I fall aaaaall the time," I reassured them as I sat up.

"You blacked out, Bells," Ginny said slowly, "are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh, yeah," I nodded, trying to sober up so that I sounded legit, but it didn't work so I didn't say anything else afterwards. "Can I have some," hiccup, "help up please?" I asked.

"Yeah sure," Louis answered as he stood up. He grabbed onto both of my hands and easily hoisted me up. "You're so light," he remarked.

"Thanksssss," I laughed as I fell back into my lawn chair.

"Here," Ginny said, thrusting my cell into my hand. "Calm Edward down."

"Heeeeeey," I greeted as everyone else in the group sat back down.

"Bella? Oh fuck, are you okay?" He asked, sounding very concerned.

Of all the things that should be going on in my head, how hot Edward's voice sounded when he swore should definitely not be one of them.

"Who me? Oh yeah, I'm just great," I giggled. "I fall a lot, it's not," hiccup, "exactly uncommon for me."

"Well, are you sure? People don't normally black out after tripped."

"I'm just great. I'm not sore at all, my head isn't hurting, yet, and I'm happy. So, there's nooooothing wrong," I explained, closing my eyes and resting my head on the back of the chair.

"Well, that's good to hear. So, will I see you tonight?" he asked. If I wasn't shit-faced, I'd swear he sounded hopeful.

"Yeah, I'll call you when I get back to my place," I smiled, and didn't hiccup, thank god.

"Okay, talk to you tonight then," he said.

"Yeah sure, have a good night. Or ... morning I guess," I whispered, giggling slightly.

"Yeah, you too. Sleep well. Bye Bella," he whispered back.

"Bye Edward," I smiled and then ended the call.

I sighed as I put the phone in my lap, and kept my eyes closed.

Edward wanted to see me tomorrow, I thought in content.

The clearing of a throat is what finally made me open my eyes. I snapped my attention to the direction of the noise, and I realised everyone was staring at me.

"What?" I asked, and then hiccupped again.

They all laughed at me and shook their heads.

"What was Edward saying?" Ginny teased.

"He's going to give me a tour of London tomorrow," I mumbled, closing my eyes again, suddenly very sleepy.

"I think it's time for someone to get to bed," I heard Louis announced as he quietly laughed.

My eyes were still closed as I felt myself being picked up, away from my chair.

"Hey!" I mumbled, keeping my eye closed. "Lemme go."

I opened my eyes briefly to see Louis' face. He was caring my towards the tent I'd be sleeping in.

"We're sharing a tent, is that okay? We're in separate sleeping bags."

"Yup," I nodded, popping the p. "S'okay."

"Alright, here's your bag. I'll let you get changed," he handed me my bag and then made his way back outside, zipping the door closed behind him.

I didn't bother putting on my pjs, I just tore my shorts and T-shirt off, and put a sweater on. I zipped myself up in my sleeping bag, and then I sat back up.

I opened the door to the tent and called out, "G'night everyone."

Everyone said their good nights to me again, and then I zipped up the tent and flopped against my pillow, sighing in content.

I put in my headphones, pressed shuffle on my phone, and Asleep by The Smits started playing.

My last clear memory of that night, or rather early morning, was Louis coming into the tent, whispering goodnight to me, and then falling asleep himself.

I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face, listening to the soft crones of The Smiths, hoping that the rest of my summer went exactly like tonight; fun, exhilarating, and leaving me feeling free.

xoxoxox

The next morning was not a friend of mine.

Before I even opened my eyes, my head was pounding. I didn't want to open my eyes at all, but then the memory of my conversation with Edward came into mind, and they snapped open. It was bright outside, I could tell than much even though the tent was zipped shut. I looked to my left and saw the Louis wasn't in the tent anymore, and that I could put some pants on in peace.

I grabbed a pair of pajama short shorts, they were blue with white polka dots, and put my Toms back on, because I didn't want my feet to get wet on the grass. My head was pounding as I moved, and then when I opened up the tent to see the bright, shining, morning sun, I quickly grabbed my sunglasses.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty!" Ginny called out from her lawn chair. I looked up to see everyone, minus Alex and Lindsey, sitting around the now burn out camp fire, sipping on what looked to be some coffee.

"Oh shit, you look terrible," Louis gasped, and then got a smack from Lana. "What was that for?"

She gave him a pointed look, and then looked up at me and asked, "How are you feeling sweetie?"

I just squinted at her and put my pointer finger up to my lips, "Shhh."

She smiled at me and remarked, "That bad, huh?"

I nodded and slumped down in my chair from last night.

"Do you remember everything?" Harry asked.

"Oh yeah," I groaned.

They all laughed and I just covered my ears, my beating head not liking the loud noise.

"And? What did you think of it?" Lana asked, smiling, seeming way too bubbly for so early in the morning.

My lips formed a small smiled at the thought of Edward's late night phone call, however all I said was, "I'm never drinking whiskey again."

They laughed again, and made my groan in pain.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" I asked, whispering, trying to get them to stop laughing.

"We're gonna pack up and go home," Harry responded.

"Oh, okay," I nodded, leaning my head on the back of the seat, closing my eyes.

"Yeah, these are short trips we take, we only stay one night," Louis explained.

"So, when are we packing up?" I asked.

"We already started. Lindsey and Alex have already left, actually, because Lindsey had to work tonight. They told us to tell you they said goodbye, and that they had a lot of fun with you here," Jeff said as he stood up and stretched. I then looked around and saw that there was, indeed, one less tent and one less car.

"Already gone? But it's so early!" I exclaimed, and then winced from the loudness of my own voice, and closed my eyes

"Early? Bella, hunny, it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon," Ginny laughed.

My eyes popped open. Sure, it was only noon back at home, and I didn't even get to bed until the early hours of the morning, but still. "Oh, wow, okay. So you were waiting for me?" I asked, feeling a bit bad.

"Yeah, a bit, but it's really no big deal," Lana reassured as she stood up with Jeff. They then went over to their tent to take it down. I saw that all the lanterns they had hung around were already down and in the trunk of one of the other pickup trucks on the road. All we needed to do was take down the tents, pack up clothes and we could leave.

Louis insisted I rest, but I helped him take down our tent anyway, as much as it hurt my head. It was the least I could do after last night.

Within 30 minutes, we were already packed and driving back to where their house was.

"I'll drop you off at your place, okay? So that you can unpack and take something for your head. And, I'm pretty sure you have a phone call to make," Ginny teased as she made her way to my house. My face turned beat red at the mention of him, and I realised that she was right; I did have a phone call to make.

I grabbed my stuff from the trunk or her car when she parked in front of my house, and said goodbye.

"Call me after you talk to him; I want to know what you're doing. Maybe I could help you get ready," she yelled out the window as I walked towards my front door.

"Yeah, for sure! Bye and thanks so much!" I yelled back, even if my head was hurting, and walked into my house and closing the door behind me. I wanted to just drop my stuff at the door, however I knew it would be a pain to have to pick everything up again just to bring it upstairs. I made my way up the stairs and after putting everything in its rightful spot, I grabbed the phone and held it in my hand. It was a little after five, and it was agreed I'd call him tonight. I don't know why I was so nervous to talk to him; he told me to call him.

I grabbed my cell phone and opened his contact info. I typed it into the phone and pressed talk before I could stop myself.

"Hello?" A female voice answered after just one ring.

Startled, not expecting a female, I asked, "Is Edward there?" slightly hoping I had the wrong number.

"He's actually busy. He just got into the shower. Who is this?" she asked with a flawless British accent.

"Um, my name's Bella."

"Bella, hmm, how do you know Edward? Actually, you know what? I don't care. When he gets out I'll tell him you called. Have a good day miss," she snapped and then hung up the phone.

I didn't know what to think of the phone call, so I decided not to feel anything. I took my phone, put on Let Live by Of Mice and Men, and blast it. It made my head hurt, but it also made my unable to feel anything else. I laid on my bed for about an hour, listening to music, when I started to get hungry. I paused the current song playing, which was You Be the Anchor That keeps My Feet on the Ground, I'll be the Wings That Keep Your Heart in the Clouds by Mayday Parade, and grabbed my headphones, but stopped when I heard that the phone was ringing. Not knowing how long it had been ringing, and hoping it was Edward, I sprinted to where it was.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hello, is this Bella?"

"Yeah, it is. Hey Edward." I sighed with relief, recognizing his voice.

"Oh, good, hey Bella. Sorry I missed your call," he apologized.

"It's no big deal. Who answered your phone?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound nosey.

"That was just Alice, my little sister. What did she say to you?"

"Oh, not a lot," I lied, flopping back onto my bed. "She just said you were busy."

"Well, okay. Yeah, I was. I ran out for a bit to get something to eat earlier today and I got caught in the rain, so I needed a quick shower," he explained.

I smiled at the thought of Edward soaked in water. Then I remembered what he said. "Wait, it rained today?"

He laughed, "Umm, yes? What time did you wake up this morning Miss. Hangover?" He teased.

I blushed and was grateful he couldn't see me. "Around four," I whispered.

"Like, in the afternoon?" he laughed. "Holy shit, Bells, how much did you drink?"

"A bit too much."

"Yeah, I guess. So, I take it you aren't in the right conditions for a tour of London?" He asked, sounding a bit deflated.

"Well, to be honest not really, but we could probably still find something do something?"

"If you want, sure," he answered.

"Yeah, why not? What shall we do?" I asked.

"I have an idea. Don't eat, I'll get you some supper, sound good?" He asked.

"That sounds great," I closed my eyes, not being able to contain the smile on my face.

"Great. When will you be ready?" He asked.

"In like, 30 minutes?"

"Okay, I'll be there. Wait, where are you?"

I laughed and gave him my address. He said that he knew where it was, so he could get here with no troubles.

"See you then, Bella," he whispered into the phone.

"See ya Edward."

And I hung up the phone.

Xoxoxox

I had no idea what to wear. I went through everything and I just couldn't make up my mind. Shorts and regular jeans seemed too casual, and a dress and skirts seemed too girly, formal, and unlike me.

Sighing, I grabbed my cell phone and called Ginny. She answered before the first ring ended.

"What did he say? You're on speaker; it's me, Kelsey and Lana." She rushed out, skipping her hello.

"We're going out tonight. He didn't say what for, but we're going to be eating," I explained.

"When?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Say no more, we'll be right there!"

"But I..." I tried to protest, but she had already hung up the phone.

While I waited for them, I went through all my clothes again and laid out everything on my bed that I thought was a possibility. I had put my headphones in and listened to And the Snakes Start to Sing by Bring Me the Horizon. I was swaying to the beat and rhythm of the song when I felt hands grasp at my shoulders from behind.

"_Ahhhhh!"_ I screamed, turned around and ripping out my headphones.

"Quickly," Ginny whined, pulling me into my bathroom. "We only have 15 minutes until he'll be here. And trust me, he's always punctual."

"Ever heard of knocking?" I grumbled.

"Actually, yes, but it's hard to be heard when you're blasting this into your ears!" Lana argued, smiling, holding up my phone. "Now, shut up. I'll take your hair. Kelse, you can have her makeup, and Gin? You can try to find something for her to wear."

I was pushed down onto a stool in my bathroom and I was immediately tackled by Kelsey with lipsticks and makeup brushes. I kept my eyes closed for that because I didn't want to see what she was putting on me, because I knew I would disagree; I loved doing my makeup, sure, but I hated putting on too much. My hair was being pushed around by Lana, and because my eyes were closed, I had no idea what she was doing. All I could feel was some sort of hot hair utensil, probably a curling iron, being used.

I opened my eyes briefly when I felt Kelsey putting lipstick on me so that I could grab my phone and continue listening to my music. I took out my headphones so that we could all enjoy Somewhere in Neverland by All Time Low.

"Where's Lindsey?" I asked, realising one of the four girlfriends was missing.

"Work," Kelsey answered.

"I didn't know you liked BMTH," Lana commented, although it sounded like she had bobby pins in her mouth.

"Yeah, I love them."

"I thought you were marrying Alex and Kellin!" I heard Ginny yell.

"Me and Oli are married already!" I responded, laughing.

"Oh my, what will Edward think?" Kelsey teased.

"Shhh, it'll be our little secret," I smiled, closing my eyes again.

"Okay, I'm done," Kelsey called, letting Ginny know.

"How are you doing, Lana?" Ginny asked, coming in to see.

"Just one more sec."

She put a few bobby pins into my hair and then I heard her take a small step back. "Done."

I opened my eyes to see myself in the mirror, and I was shocked. After only probably 10 or 15 minutes, they had done more than I could do in over an hour. Kelsey had given me a very subtle smokey eye; making my eyes look huge yet making it seem like I wasn't wearing a bunch of makeup, and I had a rosy colored lipstick on. And then I looked at my hair.

_My hair. _

Somehow, Lana had managed to curl some of it fast enough that she could also pin most of it up. Half of my hair was down in soft locks, while the other half was pinned up, making my hair look fuller, and then was cascading down my back.

"Oh gosh, you guys did an amazing job," I laughed, turning my head left and right so that I could see more of me.

"Well thank you. It was nothing," Lana smiled back at me. "I only put a few pins in it so if you need to, it will be easy to take out."

"Yeah, and I wasn't going to use lipstick, but Chuck complains sometimes when I wear lip-gloss 'cause it's really sticky." Kelsey told me as we walked out to wear Ginny and my clothes were.

"I doubt that would matter to him," I frowned, looking at her.

She smirked and rolled her eyes, "Mhmm."

I just ignored her and walked over to my closet. "Find anything?"

"Yes, and I gotta say, I love your wardrobe!"

"Thank you!"

"So, you'll wear these jeans," she told me, holding up my black jeggings, "and I've narrowed it down to these three shirts," she pointed to my bed where she had them laid out, "but I'll choose according to what he's wearing."

"And how will you know what he has on?"

"I'll answer the door, of course!"

I look over at the shirts she chose and I saw a blue button up, a plain white long sleeved shirt that she paired with a purple scarf, and a black short sleeved band t-shirt that she had beside a black leather jacket.

Just then the bell rang.

Ginny looked at her watch and laughed. "Always punctual, indeed."

She skipped down the stairs and her small heels made a clacking sound on the hardwood.

My heart was beating faster and faster as I heard her walk closer and closer to the front door.

"Hey there Edward, I'm Ginny!" I heard her greet him after she opened the door.

I must have looked nervous, because Lana looked and my and smiled, saying "Calm down, Bella. It's just a first date. You've been on one before, right?"

"Sure," I nodded, "Like, two years ago."

"Well, it'll be fine," she whispered.

"Yeah, she's here, she's just finishing getting ready. I'll go let her know you're here," I heard Ginny tell Edward. "C'mon in. You can sit on her couch or something if you want."

"Okay, thanks," he responded and I smiled at the sound of his voice.

I heard Ginny clack her way back up the stairs and she said, "Edward's here," as she pointed to one of the three shirts. It was a dark blue button up with three quarter length sleeves and a pocket on the right side of the buttons.

I quickly tore my shirt off, careful not to ruin my hair, and I put that on. I tucked the bottom of it into my pants as Ginny put shoes on the floor in front of my feet, Lana handed me my purse, and Kelsey handed me my phone and wallet. After I put my shoes on and grabbed everything, I made my way downstairs, going much quieter than Ginny because I wasn't wearing heels. I looked down the first couple of stair to shove my stuff into my small bag, but then when I looked up, I saw Edward standing at the end. He was facing me, his hand in his jacket pocket, and he was smiling up at me. I noted that he was also wearing dark jeans and a green button up, so I was glad Ginny picked out the right shirt for me. But he was still wearing sunglasses, even though it was night time.

"Hello," Edward greeted me once I reached the bottom. "You look beautiful."

I could feel my insides melting at his compliment. "Thank you, you look really nice too."

I looked up at his face and wished that I could see his eyes. His hair was its usual copper mess, and his smiled as closed mouthed and slightly crooked.

"Shall we go?" He asked, turning towards the door.

"Yeah, okay." We walked towards the front door and right before he opened the door, I turned to see the 3 girls standing at the very top of the stairs. I mouthed "oh my god" at them, in response to how hot Edward looked, and they just waved, mouthing back their goodbyes.

Edward opened the passenger seat of his silver car for me as well, and as he made his way around the car outside to his seat, I tried to control my breathing.

"Ready to go?" He asked once he sat down and turned the car on.

"Yeah," I whispered.

"Hey, are you ok?" He asked, turning towards me. "We don't have to go out."

"No no no, I want to," I rushed out quickly, and then blushed realising how desperate I probably sounded. "I'm just nervous."

"What about?"

"I'm not very good at ... dates."

"How do you know?"

I didn't want to tell him the real reason because that was definitely not a conversation to have on a first date. "I'm just awkward."

"Who told you that?" He asked, sounding confused.

"Who hasn't?" I murmured to myself, looking down at my hands in my lap. Then I wished I said nothing, because I didn't want to talk about it.

He sighed and turned the car off. I then looked up at him to see him looking out the window, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I'm annoying you, aren't I? Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I can just go." I whispered, grabbing my bag.

"No, I'm sorry, you aren't annoying me at all. I just hate that you see yourself that way; that someone has called you that before. Do people pick on you a lot?"

"Well, I mean, not really. I'm just kind of a loser that hates most people, so it's not like people, besides my friends, actually talk to me," I shrugged.

"Well," he said as he turned his whole body towards me, and grabbed my hands. "You aren't awkward, or a loser or annoying, okay? I like you," he smiled reassuring me.

I nodded, but I couldn't help but feel like he was babying me. "Okay."

He nodded back. "Okay, so shall we go?" he smiled, turning the car on.

"Yes we shall," I nodded, trying to forget what was just said.

"Awesome," he said to himself as he pulled off of my road.

He turned the radio on, and turned it down low so it was just background noise. I quietly sang along to the end of Lost In You by Three Days Grace, until I realised I had no idea where we were going.

So, Mr. ... wait. I don't know your last name. What is it?" I realised.

"Um, it's Mason. Edward Mason."

"Edward Mason," I smiled, liking the way it sounded when I said it. "Well, I'm Isabella Swan; Bella for short though."

"Isabella? Why don't you go by that?" He asked.

"It just sounds ... I don't know, weird. Bella's better."

"Well, they both suit you," he smiled, making me melt a bit again inside.

We kept going forward, my head resting the back of the chair, and my right hand holding his left.

"So, Mr. Masen, as I was saying," I smiled, trying to talk in a British accent, "where art thou taking I?"

He laughed at both my accent and my attempt to talk in an old English literature way. "I guess you'll just have to find out."

"The past few days have been full of surprises for me. No one tells me where we're headed," I remarked.

"Right, about that, how was your night last night?" He asked, teasing me.

I sighed loudly, feigning annoyance, and smiled. "It was actually pretty fun. Although my head hurt like a bitch in the morning."

"Language, missy," he scolded, teasingly.

"Oh, whatever," I rolled my eyes, enjoying this playful air.

"But, yes, I bet it hurt. How much did you drink?" He asked.

"A whole bottle of ... whatever it was that I was drinking." I laughed, forgetting what it was that I had been drinking.

"Oh, my." He shook his head. "Well, we're here."

I looked out of my window to that we had pulled up next to an old brick building. The road was practically abandoned, and I momentarily wondered if we'd be safe here, but I pushed those thoughts back, knowing that it was unlikely Edward would bring me here if he thought something would happen to me.

"I know it looks a bit sketchy, but I've been here plenty of times before. It's fine."

"Okay, great," I smiled as I looked into his eyes, knowing we'd have a great time wherever we were.

I looked back at Edward to see him take his sunglasses off. This probably wasn't a big deal for him, but it was for me. His eyes were a gorgeous, sparkling green color. Then, because of his choice of attire, they seemed almost vibrant. Even though it was dark outside, I could tell it was going to be hard for me to look away, and then I'd probably make a fool of myself. But then he looked back at me, and with the mixture of his shinning eyes, messy hair, and crooked smile, I knew I had nothing to worry about.

Yes, tonight was _definitely _going to be a great night.

**I cannot tell you how sorry I am for how long this took. You remember how I mentioned that my laptop is kinda broken? Well, it finally kinda shut down. I had to get it fixed my by stepdad, but because he's lazy, rude and "always busy" he didn't get it fixed until like a month after I gae it to him, even though it only took like an hour or two to fix. I would have started over for you guys, but I already had most of this done. It would've been longer, but I wanted to get this out so that you would know that I'm not ignoring you guys, and that I'm serious about this. I hope you guys had a great Easter weekend, and that you enjoy this chapter.**

**Also – BMTH is Bring Me the Horizon, the band. If you don't know them, look them up. They're actually really good. **

**Up next, their date!**

**Lemme know what you think of it please!**

**~Bailey**


	6. I'm Low on Gas and You Need A Jacket

Edward opened the car door for me, like a gentleman, and took my hand. We held hands in the car, but it felt different now. His hand was so warm. In the already warm car, it made no difference, but now that I was outside, and could feel the wind, I took the chance to curl into his side. He let go of my hand and wrapped it around my shoulder, so that I could snuggle a little closer to him.

"You didn't bring a jacket," he remarked.

"I thought it would be warm," I responded.

He slid his hand up and down my arm a few times in attempt to warm me up, but I immediately felt better once we got into the building. It was a small, dimly lit, restaurant. There was a hostess stand near the entrance and behind it stood a teenage girl a few years younger than me, with her back facing us.

When she heard us walk in, however, she spun around. Her long, pin straight pony tail flew around and landed on her shoulder as she faced us. She smiled.

"Hi Edward! For one?" She asked, reaching to grab a single menu.

"No, not today Tabby, I'm here with someone," he replied sheepishly, placing his hand on my back to bring me forward so she could see me. She smiled even wider as she met my gaze.

"Oh, okay, I'll get you your table," she replied, spinning around again. If I had to smile that wide, my cheeks would start to hurt.

We followed Tabby to our table, and I noticed how empty this place was. She sat us at a circular booth in a corner, facing the wall decked out in black and white photos of couples. It was the type of booth where you couldn't see who was sitting down unless you walked around the table. It was big enough for 5 or 6, so it was very spacey with only two of us.

"Your waitress will be right with you," Tabby announced after we sat down, and walked around the table, out of sight.

"Sorry if this is a bit big, it's where I usually sit. We can move if you want," he said, adjusting his position so that he could easily slide out of the booth.

"No, no," I stopped him, grabbing his hand. "This is great."

"Okay. I come here often, always alone, so that's how they know me," he explained.

"That's what I thought. What are you going to get?"

"They have amazing burgers," he opened up the menu. "The spaghetti is pretty good too."

"I'll probably get a burger," I decided, opening my menu as well.

"Who are all the pictures of?" I asked.

"The restaurant takes picture of couples who get engaged, celebrate an anniversary or get married here," he explained.

"That's really cute," I smiled, looking back up at all the framed smiling faces.

"Hey Edward! How are you this evening?" A very gorgeous, brunette, woman in her early 20s asked. She leaned over the table slightly so give him a better view of down her very low cut shirt. Hey eyeliner was very dark, and drew the eye to the black instead of her actual eye.

"I'm good, thanks, Effie, and yourself?" He asked politely, smiling at her.

"I'm just great," she answered flirtatiously. "So, would you like your usual?"

I couldn't help but feel a bit deflated at the fact that they obviously saw each other a lot, because he had a usual.

"Not tonight, I'll have a glass of chardonnay."

"Coming right up," she then turned to me and looked at me as if she only just noticed I was there. "Oh, hello sweetie, what can I get for you?" she asked condescending.

"I'll have-" I was about to order a glass of water when Edward interrupted me.

"She'll have what I'm having."

I snapped my head over to him in surprise. He knew that I wasn't of age yet.

"Oh, well then I'll have to see her ID," she remarked, only looking at Edward.

"I didn't bring it," I told her.

"Well, you don't look of age, so unless you have your ID there's nothing I can do for you," she answered sassily, cocking her hips and crossing her arms.

"C'mon Effie, she's here with me. She's fine. Just give her a glass," Edward huffed, obviously annoyed.

"A-alright," she stuttered, as she turned around to leave.

"Oh, and Effie?" Edward called her back before she disappeared.

She turned back in an instant, nodding her head. "Yes Edward?"

"You might want to take off some of the black," he said, his voice hard, as me motioned to her eyes. "It's distracting and, to be frank, kind of scary."

Her face turned beat red; she immediately looked down and brought her finger up to her eyelid.

"Sorry Edward." Then she practically ran.

"I'm sorry about that," Edward muttered, looking down at his menu after she left.

"It's fine."

"No, it's not. She treated you like a little kid," he shook his head, still looking down.

"Well, I am only 17," I answered quietly.

"I know, but you seem so much more mature then that," he looked up at me then and smiled. "So, on to better topics. What do you want to be when you get older?"

"I'm not quite sure anymore. Something fun, but I want money too."

He laughed. "Doesn't everyone?"

"I want to do something music related, but I don't know what. Being a lawyer and a director are also up there."

"A director? Why?"

"I like taking videos and telling people what do to."

He laughed, "Well, that seems like a pretty good answer. What could you do that's musically?"

"I have no idea."

"Well, can you sing?"

"Only a little."

"Write songs?"

"Nothing good enough to share."

"Play any instruments?"

"Some." I nodded.

"What ones?"

Ticking them off with my figures, I said "Guitar, piano, bass, violin, cello, some drums and the triangle."

He made a low whistle and smiled. "We've got a musician on our hands."

I blushed and shrugged. "Not really. Music has just always been important to me. I've had a lot of screwed up emotions when I was growing up, and writing music helped, so I tried to learn as many instruments as I could."

"What do you mean screwed up emotions?" He asked, sounding confused.

I bit my lip. "That's not really first date material."

"I don't care, I want to get to know you. All of you. But, if you don't want to tell me, I'm not going to make you. Don't make yourself uncomfortable," he reassured me, smiling.

"Okay, well umm, I wasn't always very ... happy, I guess, when I was younger. I mean, who is, right? High school is a big change and I just couldn't handle all of it at first, you know? Especially after what happened with Josh," I closed my eyes and shook my head, not wanting to talk about that. "So, I isolated myself, and my mom got worried 'cause I stopped hanging out with the few friends I had. So she was like, you need to figure out how to deal with your life without spending all your time on the internet, in your room, alone. So, I started writing songs, getting more active and, I don't know, it really helped. I still spend time alone and stuff; I don't really like hanging out with people I'm not comfortable with, but I no longer hide from my actual friends. And it's easier now that I have more outlets for my emotions, I guess."

"Wait, so are you comfortable around me?"

"Yeah, I am. I don't know why, I mean I just met you and all, but I do. Which is pretty rare for me." I trailed off and then looked up at him. "Does all of that make sense?"

He nodded and looked at me with a hard expression that I couldn't quite read. "It does, yeah, I just have a few questions. Is that okay?"

I hesitated a bit, and he noticed.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to judge at all." He said with kind eyes and a soft voice. "I'm honestly just curious."

"You really want to go cleaning out my closet on the first date?" I asked, meaning for it to sound like a joke, but instead it coming out serious.

"We can start, if you don't mind that is. You can go digging though mine a bit too, if you want," he smiled, reassuring me.

I smiled back at him and was about to reply, when Effie showed up again. Her eyes were almost completely void of any black.

"Here you are, two glasses of chardonnay. Do you know what you are having yet?" She asked. She may have cleaned up a little, but her attention was obviously still completely on Edward.

"Yes, I think so. Bella?" Edward asked, looking at me.

"Umm," I looked down quickly at the menu and ordered the first thing I saw. "I'll have the mushroom ravioli."

She wrote it down in a little blue notebook, and then looked back at Edward with a look of seduction in her eyes.

"And yourself?"

"I'll have ... the spaghetti. Please," he responded, his voice void of emotion, and handed her his menu without looking at her.

I looked up at her, however, when I handed her my menu, to see her looking at Edward. She had her bottom lip stuck out in a pout, and huffed as she walked away with our menus.

"So," Edward started, ignoring the awkward interaction we just had with Effie. "I can ask you a few questions?"

I pursed my lips and just stared at him. "Sure," I decided. What's the worst he could ask?

"Who's Josh?"

Oh, that.

"He's just an ex."

"So you dated?"

"Me saying he's an ex implies that yes, we did in fact date."

He smiled at my sarcastic tone. "And what happened?"

"We just didn't think it was smart to see each other anymore."

"Bullshit."

"Fine. He was interested in someone else."

"I can tell we're getting closer, but that's still a lie."

I smiled at him. "How could you tell?"

He shrugged. "I've learned to become good at knowing when people at lying to me." I could tell by the way he said it that there was a story behind it.

"Will you explain that?"

"When it's your turn to ask the questions, sure."

"Okay, fine. He cheated on me with another girl."

His eyes turned sad. "I'm sorry. I know how you feel. When was that?"

I wanted to ask him how he knew how I felt, but it wasn't my turn to ask the questions.

"Sophomore year."

"How old is he?"

"He's just a year older."

He nodded and looked up at me. "Are they still together?"

"Who?" I asked, already knowing.

"Him and the girl he cheated on you with. If he's dumb enough to cheat, it must've been with someone he wanted to spend forever with, 'cause I can't imagine how he would've found someone better than you."

His answer shocked me, and made my mouth turn up in a large grin. "Thanks, and yeah they still are. I doubt he wants to be, but I wouldn't put out and she got pregnant, so yeah, they're still together"

His expression immediately went from soft and sad to hard and furious. "Wait, he slept with another girl because you wouldn't, and then he got her _pregnant_?"

I nodded, his reaction surprising me. Jasper and Emmett were both angry, too, when they found out, but I barely knew Edward.

"Yeah. She didn't know about me at the time, and she felt really bad. But she wants to stay with him for their baby. I actually really like her. I think we'd be good friends if the circumstances were different."

He nodded, but in a distracted way that made me think he wasn't actually paying attention.

"Edward?"

His head snapped up to mine, and he quickly shook his head, as if shaking away thoughts. "Sorry, I just can't believe it. Do you mind if I ask why you wouldn't have sex with him?"

I blushed at his blatant tone, but answered anyway. "We were only together a month when I found out. I just wasn't ready I guess."

He shook his head. "What a dumbass. I can see why that would make high school rough, having to go to the same building as assholes like that."

I smiled. "It wasn't easy, but it did get better."

"I'm glad," he smiled. "So, next question. You said you weren't always happy. Besides for Dumbass, what happened?"

I bit my lips and thought about how to start with this, and have it make sense. "Nothing, really, in the sense you're talking about. I just wasn't liked by a lot of people, but they pretended to so that they could get to my best friend, Rose. Rose is very popular. She's gorgeous, a cheerleader, dating the quarterback of the football team. Everyone wanted to be best friends with her. They all thought they were better than me, and that they deserved to be best friends with her instead of me. So, they tried to get her through me, and tried to prove they were better than me when she was around. I didn't know this at first, so I let a lot of people in, only to have them leave once they found out Rose wasn't interested. I thought it was just because they liked me, but no. I see that now though. I mean, I know now how easily I pale in comparison, but I didn't completely back then. Now, though, I don't even bother trying to be nice because they're almost all sluts. Guys used me, girls pretended to like me. I thought I was so cool, but I was actually just really naive. No one talks to me much now anyway, so."

I hated the way I was sounding, so depressing and needy. But he asked, so he was getting the answer.

He nodded his head and sighed. "Do you have a picture of this girl, your friend?"

"Who, Rose?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Uh, yeah, just a second," I said as I took out my phone. I had no idea why he would want to see her. Maybe I got him curious, and he wanted to see her, to see if he was interested.

I went through my camera roll and opened the picture of her I had saved. It was a regular picture, unedited, of her and Jasper. I liked it because they looked so alike in this picture, with them standing side by side. She had her hair down long, wavy, and her blue eyes shined. She wore a white button up with the sleeves rolled up, and her smiled was painted red.

I handed him my phone and he took a look at the picture.

"Who's that?"

"Rose and her brother, Jasper."

He nodded and handed the phone back to me.

"So now you see what I'm compared to," I smiled sadly, putting the phone back in my bag.

"No, I see a girl who, yes, is very beautiful. But honestly, I find she's the one who pales in comparison, to use your words."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right. You're just saying that."  
"No, really. She is attractive, sure, but it's the kind of beauty that hits you. It stuns you because she's so vibrant. But with you, it's calmer. It's easier to take in. It doesn't all hit you at once, so you get to take in every little detail," his voice was now at a whisper as his eyes traveled over my face. "You're lovely. Shallow people might be too distracted by her to notice you, but it's not because you're unattractive or inferior in any way. Your beauty just isn't as loud."

Tears started to form in my eyes, making me feel like an idiot. No one has ever explained it to me in that way before. Even Josh has blatantly said that Rose was prettier than I am.

"Thank you," I smiled, meaning it.

He smiled back and scooted a little closer to me. His hand entwined with mine under the table and he kissed the top of my head.

"You're welcome, beautiful."

We stayed like that for a while, his head resting on top of mine, and me leaning on his chest. I could hear his heartbeat through his chest, and this felt more intimate than anything I've done before, strangely. Even with sex, I've never felt this close to someone. This might have looked so innocent to someone else, us leaning against each other, but to me it was so much more.

We stayed like that until he felt he wanted to ask more questions, but he never let go of my hand.

"So, you felt unhappy. People used use and left you. This is all pretty shitty, so what did you do? You said you isolated yourself, but what do you mean by that?"

"I just spent a lot of time alone. Rose really resents Josh because of the obvious reason, but also because it really screwed me up. I didn't talk to anyone for a while."

"Did your parents notice anything?"

"My mom did first, yeah. She got worried, so she booked a therapy session thing, but I refused to go. She took me to the hospital one day, because she was worried, and they talked to me a bit. They made therapy mandatory."

"The hospital? What happened?" he asked, sounding confused.

"I think she was worried I was gonna kill myself or something. I didn't though, I was just sad, but they still put me on medication for a while. That's when I started swimming a lot, and surfing more, and learning lots of instruments to distract myself. I still have shitty days, but I don't go to therapy anymore. And I haven't been medicated for a while, either. My friends actually forget how I was back then sometimes because of how I am now. I dance by myself to my music, I'm sarcastic, my marks have gone up a lot, I'm -" he cut me off.

"Holy shit," he mumbled, shaking his head, and looked away. He pulled his hand out of mine to run his fingers through his hair.

_Fuck,_ I thought. So that was his breaking point. I had officially freaked him out. No one likes a depressed chick.

He didn't look at me again, so I started nodding my head, planning how I would get home. I could go ask the hostess – what was her name? Tasha? Abby? – if she could give me a number for a taxi. I grabbed my phone and checked the time. It wasn't too late, so I could just call Ginny or Kelsey or Lana to come and get me, but I didn't want to have to explain this to them.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, trying not to cry. "This is too much, I know. I'm too much. I can just go, I'm sorry to have wasted your time." I pulled out some money to pay for my food, and started to slide out of the booth.

"Wait." Edward called, his voice strangled. "Don't go."

"You don't have to feel bad, Edward." I smiled, trying to make my voice sound happier. "I know that I was fucked up, and still kinda am in some ways, and I know that most people don't like to deal with people like that. Like me. Trust me, I'm used to people changing their mind about me. So, you really don't have to feel bad." I was now standing out of the booth.  
"No, no, no. You don't understand," he shook his head, getting out of the booth. He took his hands and cupped my face. His eyes looked sad, but not disgusted, which was a good sign.

"I hate that you're used to people not liking you because of what you've been through. But I'm not that guy, Bella. I don't care about what has happened to you, I don't. Not in the way that would make me not want to be around you. I like you because you're _you._ It makes me so sad that such a lovely girl has gone through this. That people treated you that way. You aren't fucked up, Bella, truly. Please stay. I don't want you to go."

I took a shaky breath and nodded my head, trying to control my breathing.

"We only just met," Edward whispered, leaning his face close so that it was mere inches from mine, "But I feel like I've never been closer to someone, than with you."

I nodded my head, and managed to smile. "I know how you feel."

"Bella, I don't want you to think that you can't say something to me about your past or how you felt or how you feel now just because you're worried of what I might think. I want you to be honest with me, okay? But, don't feel that you have to tell me anything. You can leave, if you don't want to be here, but don't leaving thinking I didn't want you to stay, okay?"

"You're really good at saying the right things."

"Thanks." He smiled.

"Will you be honest with me, as well?"

He licked his lips, and answered, "As honest as I can be."

"I guess that will do. But, really, you know pretty much everything I had buried in the closet. I don't think there's anything worse."

"You sure?" He teased. "No dead bodies in there I need to know about?"

I smiled and sighed with relief that the subject had gracefully changed back into our light manner.

"None that I can remember."

Xoxoxox

Effie came by without food shortly after, and it was amazing.

"Err ma gaah!" I exclaimed, with a full mouth, once she had left.

Edward laughed and asked, "It's good?"

I moaned in pleasure and nodded my head, my mouth still full of food. "Fo gooh!"

He smiled and shook his head. The questions had become lighter after I told him about me going to the hospital and getting medication. It became more about favorite colors and books I've read and liked.

"So," he started after he swallowed some of his spaghetti. "Tell me about your friends. All of them."

"I don't have many," I admitted. "Rose, Emmett, and Jasper are my closest. There's a girl in my English class, Spencer, I get along with too. But, like I said, I don't really talk with others."

"Tell me about them."

"Well, Rose has been my best friend since we were 5. She's like the more social version of me, except without the awesome music taste. We like almost all the same things, but she's more polite to people. She's a cheerleader, like I said. She wanted to be in gymnastics when she was younger, but she also liked to dance, so she started cheerleading because it was like a combination of the two. A lot of other people she hangs out with are kinda slutty, so she doesn't spend a lot of time with them outside of school, but she's always nice to them. She's outgoing but can be calm. She loves to shop. She's my best friend and very forgiving, luckily for me.

"Emmett is Rose's boyfriend. He's like a brother to me. He's huge too. People get intimidated by him sometimes, but he's really just a big softy. Half the time he's about as mature as a 13 year old, but he can be serious and can give good advice when it counts. I wasn't too sure how much I liked him at first, but he makes Rose really happy, and it's obvious he loves her, so he grew on me.

"Jasper is Rose's twin brother. We became friends really fast. We can both play guitar and he loves All Time Low almost as much as I do. In freshman year, we tried dating, but we realised we were better friends. I love him, but it's completely platonic.

"And then there's Spencer. She can be kind of a bitch, but so can I, so it's fine. It's better, though, when it's just us. I only know a bit about her, because we only talk in class. But, she's pretty cool, so yeah. Those are my friends." I shrugged, and took a bite of my food.

He nodded his head and said, "I can tell you care for them very much, considering how highly you speak of them."

"Yeah, I guess. What about you, many friends?"

This was the first question I asked him, and I hoped he didn't reject it, saying it was still his turn to ask the questions.

He didn't.

"I have a few yeah, although not many," was the only answer I got.

"Well, are you going to elaborate on that?"

He sighed and looked at me. "Well, when I grew up I guess I had a harder time making real friends. When I was just starting school, when I was 5 up until I was around 9 or 10, it was all good, but it got a lot harder. My parents are fairly wealthy, I guess you could say, so people pretended to like me a lot to get ... well I don't really know what. Maybe money, I guess. Once I was about 15, though, it got easier. I made real friends and all was good, it was just girls that became a problem. I had this one girlfriend, when I was 16, and we dated for a few months when I found out she was just using me," he smiled sadly, and then laughed quietly. "I was sad about it, but I got over it pretty quickly. I guess that proves how much the relationship actually meant to me."

"That's terrible, I'm really sorry. What about the friends you have know, what are they like?"

"Like I said, there isn't many. The friend I've had the longest is James. He met when we were toddlers, but we only see each other every so often; he lives in Scotland. And then there's Garret. He's a bit vulgar, but he didn't care about me parents, so we got along easy. He doesn't live far, but I don't see him very often either. That's all, I guess. They're my closest friends."

I nodded my head and smiled. "Well, that's good. What do you do for a job?"

"I'm not working at the moment, I'm going to Uni."

'Okay, cool. So, what do your parents do? You mentioned they're wealthy."

"Yeah, um, they just own a lot of property. Businesses and stuff. It's not very interesting," he laughed.

"No, that's pretty cool. So, you have a sister?"

"Yeah, I do, Alice. She's 18. She's going to Uni as well."

I nodded my head and then smiled sheepishly. "I don't really know what else to ask."

He laughed quietly and was about to say something, when Effie returned again.

"How's everything going?" she asked.

I looked down at out plates to see Edward's meal more than half gone, and mine barely touched.

"It's going good thanks," Edward answered, not taking his eyes off of mine.

"Alright, well let me know if you need anything," she sounded annoyed he didn't pay attention to her. Then she left.

"You still eating?" I asked.

He shook his head and asked the same, and I shook my head as well.

"You wanna get outta here?" he asked.

"Sure."

He pulled out his wallet and put a few pills onto the table, and I complained, saying I could pay for my own food, to which he laughed and grabbed my hand again.

We made our way outside, after saying thanks and goodnight to Tabby, not Abby or Tasha, and got back to his car.

"Where are we going now?" I asked, excited.

"I want to show you something. It's surprise though," he smiled, winking at me, before looking at the road again.

"Okay."

Comfortable silence passed.

"I have to get gas."

"Okay."

He pulled into a gas station, vacant of people, and got out of the car. I put my music on shuffle from my phone to get rid of the silence, and You Need a Jacket and I'm Low on Gas by Pierce the Veil came on. Good song, good song.

Before the song even finished, he came back into the car and smiled.

He pulled back onto the freeway and comfortable silence occurred again. I didn't feel the need to say anything, but I the need to listen to more music came back. So instead I spoke.

"I want to know more about you."

"Like what?" he smiled.

"I don't know. Wanna play 20 questions?"

"Sure," he answered as he pulled onto a free way.

"Okay. First girlfriend?"

"I'm pretty sure I was about 7. Her name was Annika. I pulled her hair, she held my hand, and the next day she said I had cooties and couldn't talk to me anymore."

I laughed. "Awh, how cute."

"Oh, I know. My turn. Have you dated anyone since Josh?"

"Nope. Best concert you've seen?"

"Warped Tour 2010. I traveled to the US to see it. I got a lot of girls' hair in my mouth, but it was amazing. Play any sports?"

"I swim, I surf, and I can play a bit of basketball, but not much. I like hockey too. I just can't play. Last girlfriend?"

"I was 18. Her name was Poppy. She cheated and I haven't seen her since."

"Oh, wow, what a bitch." So that's how he understood how I felt with Josh.

"She kinda was, yeah. So, what's one thing you've never done you want to accomplish before you die?"

I thought about it for a second. "This is going to sound really deep, but I just want to experience real love, if it even exists. I want to know what the hypes about. Have you ever been in love?"

"I thought I was, but looking back now, no I haven't. Can we pause the game for a second?"

"Is that your question? I teased."

He smiled, but shook his head.

"Okay."

"Do you believe in love?"

" Well, I don't know. I guess I just think it's subjective."

"That doesn't really answer my question."

"What was it again?"

"Do you believe in love?"

"I'll let you know." I answered before I could stop myself.

There was more silence between us and I looked down into my lap, embarrassed, and didn't look up until I felt him grab my hand, which had been in my lap.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"You have a beautiful blush."

I swore my cheeks would stain red if he kept that up.

**Hello again. I'm sorry about the delays between chapters. Don't think I've forgotten about you, I've just been really busy lately. My mental health has been suffering, and I have to now see a therapist, plus I've visited the hospital and had to see a few doctors. So, that took up valuable writing time. You can blame my parents on that one. Who knows though, maybe my new therapist will say creative writing will help and then my parents will get me a laptop not all broken and old and I'll get to write more and easier.**

**I hope you guys enjoy. If there's anything you don't understand, don't like, want clarified, wants changed, or anything else at all, let me know. I love getting feedback, negative or positive.**

**I hope the end of your guys' school years have been a little less hectic than mine, and I hope you aren't procrastinating as much as I am with studying for exams.**

**Love you guys, really.**

**~Bailey **


	7. All Summer Long

The drive was longer than I expected.

It was still cold when we got back outside, so he offered me my jacket, telling me that I would need it where we were going.

We were in the car for about another 45 minutes and as we drove, we made small talk and talked a bit more about out childhoods in a lighter manner than before.

"So, you play many instruments. Do you have a favorite?" Edward asked me as we sped down the highway, his thumb rubbing small, soothing circles on my hand.

"I like the violin a lot, actually. The piano was the first instrument I started to play. So, I guess those two would be my favorites, but I play the guitar the most."

"When did you start playing the piano?"

"I was about 6 or 7. Then I started the violin through school in about 4th or 5th grade. I still play, a lot, but not in any program. Do you play any instruments?"

"The piano and a bit of the guitar," he answered and took an exit.

I smiled and tried not to blush at his confession. Rose and I joked often that men who could play the bass, guitar, or piano would, in our theory, obviously be amazing in bed because their hands were very talented. The fact that he could play both the piano and the guitar made me think of things that were very inappropriate for a first date.

"Are we almost there?" I asked, trying to divert my attention from my current thoughts.

"Yeah, we are. We're actually," he slowed down and turned onto a dirt road surrounded by trees. "getting out soon."

The road he pulled onto was barely a road, and I would have missed it had he not turned down it. There were so many tall trees surrounding it, and it was getting dark enough, that I could barely see what was ahead of us. A thought crossed my mind that maybe I shouldn't have trusted him, and that he might kill me, but the thoughts stopped when he parked the car next to a patch of trees that has a vague path in them.

He cleared his throat before he started talking."I come here sometimes, by myself. I've never really, um, brought anyone here before, you see. It's in the kinda a remote spot, I'm aware, so if you don't, um, want to go, I understand. But, I mean, it's really pretty, so if you wanna go ... we're here." He stammered, looking embarrassed.

I smiled at how young he looked, sitting here in the driver's seat. Almost as if he was a child who did something he was very proud of, but was scared of the reaction he would get.

I nodded my head, still smiling, as I said, "I'd love to see it."

He smiled at me, and then stepped out of the car. A few moments later, he was at my door and opened it for me.

"Thank you," I smiled.

"No problem. It's just this way, down this path," he explained as he pointed to a small path in the woods. It was barely visible, hardly a legit walking path, but it would have to do.

We didn't talk much as we walked together, hand in hand, but it was still nice. He would hold tree branches out of my way for me, and then catch me before I would trip over a tree stump. It was very hard to see, because it was getting very dark, but Edward seemed to have no problem finding his way down the path.

"I used to go exploring a lot through woods when I was younger, and I ended up finding this place a few years ago."

I was about to ask what it was, when we came to the end of the path, and I saw.

The ocean.

It was a small clearing, with a little sand, and a gorgeous view of the ocean. The waves rolled up onto the sand, and crashed onto the small rock caves that were on either side of this small piece of land. It was barely big enough to be a beach, about 50 feet between the two caves, and between the water and the trees there was about 25 feet of sand, so I knew were probably the only ones that knew about it now.

It was beautiful.

"Oh my gosh," I gasped, staring out at the sea, wishing I could jump into the waves with a surfboard.

"I know, right?"

"It's so ... stunning," I laughed.

"You are," he breathed, just loud enough for me to hear over the sound of the waves crashing.

I looked up at him to see him looking at me, and not at the view.

"Thank you. I can't believe this! How has no one seen this?"

He walked a few steps ahead, and pulled my hand with his, silently beckoning me to walk up with him.

Laughing, I ripped my hand out of his and ran up to the ocean to let my feet walk in it. I took off my shoes first, though, and Edward's jacket. It was cold, but I went in deeper. I rolled up the edge of my jeans so they wouldn't get wet, and splashed around. I looked back to see Edward standing in the middle of the beach, smiling at me.

"Well? Are you going to come in or not?" I shouted to him, laughing.

He smiled a bit more, took off his shoes and socks, and ran up to me. Once he got to the edge of the water, he also rolled up the legs of his pants. He came into the water with me and gasped.

"Oh, it's so cold."

I laughed. "I love it! Thank you so much for bringing me here!" I threw myself at him in a hug.

"You're welcome. I'm so glad you like it," he whispered in my ear.

"Of course I like it!" I stepped back, smiling. "How could I not?"

He smiled again and looked out to the sea.

He seemed distracted enough, so I thought it would be a good time to splash him. I leaned down, put my hand in the water and scooped them back up so water would go everywhere.

And go everywhere it did.

Only the space between his knees and his chest got wet, but that was enough. He gasped in surprise and turned to face me completely. I tried to look away and act nonchalant, but it didn't work; the expression on his face was too priceless.

I busted out laughing and then he asked, shocked, "Did you do this?"

Trying to look innocent I shook my head and made a gesture that said 'who, me?'.

"No, of course not. How could you think it was me? How could I do such a thing?"

"Oh, I don't know," he smiled.

Then he leaned down and scooped up water to splash me.

I also gasped in shock, even though I saw it coming, because of how cold it was.

He smiled at me and continued, "Because you wouldn't do something like that, would you?"

I just shook my head, smiling, and said, "No."

We got out of the water after a bit because, with the night breeze, we were both starting to get really cold. I trudged out of the water, trying to leap over the water with each step because walking through was pretty hard with all the waves.

I heard a laugh from behind me. "What on _earth _are you doing?"

I looked behind me to see Edward, drenched from head to toe just like me, shaking his head and laughing at my way of movement.

"I'm just trying to get out of the water."

"You look like a dear," he laughed.

I pursed my lips and turned back around, continuing to leap, and called out, "I'll take that as a compliment."

Once we were both out, we sat down in the centre of the beach, and I was shivering.

"Come here," he whispered, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I scooted closer over to him, and curled myself into his side. My head was resting on his shoulder and the heat that was somehow still radiating off of him made me feel better.

"How are you not freezing?" I asked once I had stopped shivering.

I felt him shrug. "I just don't get cold very easily, I guess."

I nodded. "I thought I was good, being from Washington and all, but I don't know."

"Maybe some time, on a warmer night, you could come surfing here."

This surprised me. "Actually?"

The waves were perfect here for surfing, but I didn't bring my surf board, and I would have no idea where to get one. I wouldn't have enough for one, and then to get it waxed, anyway.

"Yeah," he nodded. "For sure."

"But I don't have a board."

"I do."

I looked at him in confusion. "You surf?"

"Well, no. I don't at all actually. But I got one a gift once. It was my parents' way of trying to get my out of the house. They gave it to me before we went to California for a vacation, but after a few lessons I knew it wasn't for me. But, I still have the board. It's just collecting dust, and I'm sure it would love it if you took it out for a bit."

I looked at him in awe. "Oh my gosh, that would be amazing. Thank you!" I gasped and then hugged him tight to me.

"No problem, Bella."

The way my voice sounded when he said it made me smile, and I was suddenly aware of how close we were, and how wet we both were. My shirt was clinging to me, and was kind of see through, as was his. I knew that if he looked down, he would no doubt be able to see my bra, but he was looking directly into my eyes. His hand came up to push a few strands of hair out of my face, and then his hand cupped my cheek. I saw it coming, but it still surprised me when he started to lean in towards me.

Slowly, and then even a bit slower.

So, because I was the impatient person I was, I leaned in the rest of the way and planted my lips on his.

I kissed him, and I could tell he was a bit surprised at my abruptness, hell so was I, but he kissed me back too.

All thoughts that were trying to cross my head - how could he like me? He's probably just being nice. Was this too fast? – left my head and I smiled against his lips. They were surprisingly soft.

He pulled back for a second to whisper, "I'm glad you like it here," making me laugh, and then he pushed me lightly onto my back.

He came and leaned down over me, putting nearly no weight on me, and continued kissing me, again. I smiled against his lips, and opened my mouth for him. We got so into the kiss, that his mind must've not been thinking, and he rubbed him erection on me.

I gasped in surprise and pulled my mouth away.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry. I d-"

"It's okay," I cut him off, shook my head and pulled his lips back to mine. "It's okay."

Our clothes came off quickly after that. First my shirt, and Edward, trying to be a gentleman, managed to keep eye contact for a few moments before he looked.

Then Edward's shirt came off. I didn't even bother to hide my amazement at his very fit figure.

My pants were off next. Edward crawling down my body to get the still-wet skinny jeans off my legs was something I never wanted to forget.

Edward's jeans were more of a hassle for me, because he was kissing my neck as I tried to push them down, and because I was underneath. He pushed them off for me when I got frustrated they weren't sliding down easier. I moaned when I saw that he was wearing boxer briefs, and that he was most definitely _not_ small.

And then we were just lying there, together. My bra and panties were still on, and his boxer brief still on him. Our lips were still attacking each others', and our hands were exploring each other bodies.

My bra was next. He didn't try to keep eye contact this time.

"Beautiful," he muttered.

Then, as I was pushing at the elastic of his boxer briefs, his hands stopped mine.

"Are you sure?"

I looked in his eyes and, while I knew he wanted this, I could also see that he was just concerned. That he didn't want me to feel like a one night stand. I knew that tomorrow morning might, maybe, be a different story, but all I wanted right now was him.

I was panting so much I couldn't form an audible response, so I just kissed him again. Slowly, messily, hungrily.

As he pulled down my underwear, I knew it was then that he saw my hand-made scars on my hip. His eyes shot up to mine, and I squirmed. I could see in his eyes that this was something he wanted to talk about it, but not now. Hopefully not anytime soon. I was worried that he would stop. He didn't though.

"It's okay," he whispered when he was back down on top of me, repeating my earlier reassurance. "It's okay."

He didn't have a condom, but I knew I was clean. I was on the pill. He said he was clean to.

So, we made love.

And the sound of the waves crashing drowned out our screams.

Xoxoxoxox

We didn't fall asleep afterwards, as it was too cold.

I pulled on all of my clothes, which were scattered all over the place, even though they were still wet.

I was surprised they still were, as our love-making had taken nearly 2 hours.

He was momentarily surprised that there were no barriers in between us, he obviously thought I would be a virgin, but it didn't take him long to get a steady rhythm and keep going. It didn't take either of us very long to finish, so we kept going. And going and going.

I was also surprised I was able to walk as easily as I could.

It started slow and romantic, as we learned and memorised each others' bodies. Then it became fast, needy, and rough. Then he was fucking me, and I glad we were in a remote spot, because I knew my screams wouldn't have been appreciated somewhere else.

We swore a lot, and moaned a lot, but he still made me feel cared for, by whispering sweet nothing in my ear as I came. And I'd do the same by telling him how fucking hot he looked when he came.

He'd swear, I'd moan. He'd moan, I'd scream.

We then started to get tired. Our thrusting became sloppy, and we continued kissing. When we both finished, together, he stayed on top of me for a moment. He pulled out of me, and then rolled over. I curled up next to him and we both just stared at each other.

Mine and Rose's instrument theory was dead on.

After I had gotten all my clothes on, I looked at him. He was standing there, his shirt and jacket in his hand, smiling at me.

"You're so gorgeous, you know that right?" he whispered as he walked over to me.

"Thank you," I mumbled, pulling him in for a hug.

"We won't talk about this until you're ready, okay?" he said, tapping my hip.

I nodded, knowing he walk referring to my scars. "Thanks for that, too."

"So, shall we head back?"

I nodded and together, hand in hand, we made our way back to his car.

"I hope this doesn't change anything," he said out of nowhere as we drove back.

"Hope what doesn't change anything?" I asked.

"Us having sex."

I was a little taken back at how casual, and unimportant, he made it sound. But maybe I was just being sensitive, and was reading too much into it.

"Oh," I nodded, feeling dumb. "Right, well, what could it change?"

"I still want to see you. I don't want you to think that it was a one night stand. That the only thing I was looking for was sex."

I nodded and frowned slightly. Ironically, I didn't feel that way until right now. "Right."

He didn't say anything for a bit, but I could see him staring at me out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey."

I turned to look at him, responding to his voice.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" I asked.

"Think too much about what just happened. I don't regret it. Do you?"

I shook my head.

"Neither do I."

"Okay."

He sighed and pulled the car over.

"No, don't pull over. I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" he asked gently, as he took my face in his hands.

I just shrugged and kept looking down.

"Don't be sorry, Bella. Please don't. Tonight, shit, tonight meant more to me than you probably know. I don't want you to regret it, or feel like you're just a, I don't know, booty call. Is that what they call it? I don't even know. Anyway, I really like you, Bella. A lot. And tonight wasn't just some _thing_ for me. I don't normally do this. It was special for me," he finished by kissing my forehead, and I couldn't help but lean into his touch.

"I feel the same. I was kind of worried it was just an ordinary night to," I admitted. "I didn't feel that way earlier, but I guess I'm not really sure what conversation afterwards is supposed to be like."

He smiled. "I understand that. I'm not really an expert at this either. You don't feel that way now though, do you? Like I don't care?"

I shook my head and he smiled. He leaned down to kiss me, and then pulled back onto the road.

All Summer Long by Kid Rock was playing on the radio when I turned it on.

Xoxoxoxox

By the time we got back to my flat, it was after 1am. He walked me to my door, land our hand swung together between us as we walked.

"I had a nice time tonight," I smiled once we stopped at my door.

"So did I," he smiled back, his grin spreading across his whole face.

"We should do something like this again sometime," I added.

He laughed and leaned in to kiss me. His kiss left me breathless, and as he pulled away he whispered, "Something like this," in my ear.

"Goodnight Bella," he smiled again.

Then he walked down the path, got in his car, and pulled away without looking back. I stayed there, leaning against my door, trying to catch my breath, until he was out of sight.

After I opened my door, walked inside, and closed the door again, I leaned against the closed door, a goofy smile on my face.

"Oh my god!" I heard from upstairs.

I snapped my head to the top of the stairs to see Ginny, Kelsey, and Lana all still there.

"What the hell, you didn't leave?" I asked.

They ignored me.

"Oh my god!" Ginny repeated. "You totally got laid!"

I blushed. "What?"

"It's so obvious, though." Kelsey said casually, as she walked down the stairs.

"What are you talking about?"

Lana pointed at my shirt as she came to stand in front of me. "You buttoned up your shirt wrong."

I looked down and saw that she was right. The bottom button on the left hand side was in a hole, and there was an extra hole on the top of the right hand side.

How embarrassing.

My bright red face obviously gave them their answer. They squealed and pulled at my hands to run back up the stairs with them. I laughed and shook my head as they dragged me.

The pushed me onto my bed, and then huddled around me.

"So, how was it?"

"Was he any good?"

"How big was he?"

They all asked at the same time.

"He was ... amazing," I sigh happily.

"Awwww!" they all gasped.

"You two are so cute together!" Lana gushed.

"I knew it the moment I saw them," Ginny added.

"Mhmm, I knew from the moment he looked at her when he came to get her. They're perfect for each other," Kelsey nodded.

I blushed even more, if possible, and shook my head.

"So, was he big?" Lana asked again?

I nodded my head and they all squealed, again.

"Like, how big?" Kelsey asked, smiling.

"Like , you know how when you give someone a hand job, you use one hand and kinda just go up and down, really fast?" I asked, making the hand motion with my hand.

They all nodded, practically begging me with their eyes to get to the point.

"Well, one hand wasn't enough. I couldn't even fit him completely in my hand. And, when I used two hands to wrap around him, there was still like ... a lot of skin I wasn't getting."

They all gaped at me and squealed, again, even louder.

"How many times did you two do it?" Kelsey asked.

"Do it? Really, Kelsey? Are we in Year 10 again?" Ginny looked back at me. "Did he fuck you?"

I laughed at her blatant curiosity. "Yes!"

"Ohhhhhh!" they all squealed together, and got up.

"I just had _seeeeex_," Lana started, and I laughed at her attempt to sing the chorus of The Lonely Island's song I Just Had Sex.

"And it felt so _gooooood_," Ginny added.

"A woman let me put my penis inside of..." Kelsey sang.

"_Heeeeeer!" _they all wailed.

"Okay, okay," I laughed, "I'm actually really tired. I'll call you guys tomorrow right?"

They laughed and nodded.

"Sure thing, Bella," Ginny smiled and she came over to give me a hug.

"When are you going to see him again?" Lana asked.

"I'm not quite sure. Soon, hopefully," I grinned, biting my lip.

They all laughed at how I was acting.

Lana and Ginny smiled at me, said goodnight, and then walked down the stairs, arms linked, while Kelsey stayed back.

"What's up Kelsey?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. I can already see this being a better summer now that you're here."

She gave me a hug.

"Oh, thanks Kelsey!" I laughed, hugging her back. "I'm glad I'm here too."

She pulled away, smiled, and then walked down the stairs to meet up with Ginny and Lana. I didn't get into bed until I heard the front door slam shut.

As I crawled into bed, I couldn't help but get a weird feeling in my stomach.

What Edward and I had, whatever it was, had an expiration date. I was to go back to Washington in two months time, and he was to stay here, in England, to finish University and then he would eventually get a job, get married and have beautiful children.

Knowing that Edward would move on with his live, without me in it, made me feel a little sad.

Knowing that Edward having a future without me making me sad, made me very confused.

But I pushed those feelings away by telling myself we had all summer to do this. I vowed to not get too attached, and let there be no regrets once this summer was over. I wasn't going to let these worries get in the way. We were going to have fun. No strings attached after the summer was over.

Edward I could make this work, whatever this was, because we did have time.

All summer, in fact.

I fell asleep with a smile on my face and the sounds of Ed Sheeran's poetic voice in my ears.

**And another chapter is finished. **

**Sorry again for the delay. Exams are a bitch. That's all there is to say. But now there's summer and no school or exams or too many things to get in my way. I should update more, maybe even finish the story before the end of this summer (that would be fucking spectacular albeit highly unlikely). I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.**

**I really didn't plan on making them have sex, but they just took over, and so here we are. I had fun writing it. Let me know what your reactions are. I'd love to know. **

**Love you all**

**~Bailey **


	8. The Dilemma

Regret.

That was the first thing that flashed over my mind the following morning.

As my eyes blinked open and adjusted to the light, I also felt embarrassed.

I had barely known Edward a few days and we had had sex last night. He was the second person I had done it with and it was on our first date, no less.

I was in such a bad mood that I didn't want to get out of bed or talk to anyone today, but knew I had to once I heard my phone ring. I looked at the clock to see it was just after 7am, so I had no idea who it could be, since most people who didn't have to work wouldn't be up at this hour.

Hesitantly, I brought the phone up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Bella!" I heard a masculine voice exclaim from the other end.

I laughed quietly, "Hey Emmett."

"What's going on Bells?"

I sighed and tried to answer with a cheery voice. "Oh, not much. Just woke up. You?"

It was silent on the other end for a few moments too long for Emmett. I was about to ask if he was still there when he said, "What's wrong, Bella?"

"Nothing, why would you think that something's wrong?"

"I can hear it in your voice. I know you better than you would think, Bella. Now, what's wrong?"

I sighed and that's when I realised that tears were about to start falling from my eyes. "I don't know, Em," I croaked.

"Awh, Bells. Please don't cry. Just tell me what's wrong," he said softly.

I gasped a few times, trying to catch my breath.

"Please don't get bad again, Bella. Just tell me what's wrong. Or, I could get Rose if you like, she's right here."

"No, no. I can just tell you," I insisted, not wanting to bother Rose with problems that were my own fault.

"Okay. Then what is it?"

"I met this guy."

I heard him take a deep breath and then he demanded, his voice grave. "Did he hurt you, Bella?"

"No, no he didn't," I shook my head even though he couldn't see me.

I heard him exhale in relief. "What did he do then?"

"We went on a date last night."

"What did you do?" He asked. I expected him to answer with a crude joke, but I could tell that he knew I wasn't in the mood for joking.

"It was our first date."

"Did it go okay?"

"It was better than okay," I laughed, wiping my tears. "We went out to eat, talked, got to know each other. I told him about me, and he was really accepting of it all, even though I thought he wouldn't be. He told me about himself too, and how it wasn't easy for him growing up. The he took me to this place he found; a beach kind of. The waves were amazing," I smiled, remembering when we first got there.

"And? What happened next?"

I hesitated again.

"Bella," he repeated, "did he hurt you?"

"No," I sniffled, hating how weak my voice sounded.

"Then why are you so sad, Bella?" He asked, sounding sad himself.

"We has sex," I whispered, and then burst in to tears.

"Oh, Bella," he whispered, trying to sooth me.

"I'm such a _slut!_ It was our first fucking date, and we fucking had sex! I don't do that! I was with Josh for like, a whole _month_ and he left me because I wouldn't have sex with him. Edward and I haven't even _known_ each other a whole _week_, and I fucked him!" I gasped, sobbing, angry.

"Bella, it's going to be okay. Did you use a condom?" He asked.

I gasped and sobbed even harder. "No. Fucking hell, no we didn't. He didn't have one on him because he wasn't expecting it. Fucking shit, what if I got a disease? What if I'm pregnant?" I brought a hand up to my stomach, sitting upright in my bed. "I'm not fucking ready to be a mom!"

"Bella, Bella, calm down for a second. Okay, maybe you should get checked out, just in case. Also get, like, the morning after pill, or whatever it's called. It's all going to be okay, Bella. Trust me," his voice was very gentle, but firm enough to let me know he meant it.

"Okay," I whispered, calming down. "I will. I'll look in a phone book or something, if they have one in here."

"Okay. Did he pressure you into it Bells? Did he rape you?"

"What? No, it was nothing like that," I reassured him.

"Okay. How old is he?"

I winced. "Twenty."

He whistled. "Shit, Bells."

"I know, I know. I just don't know, too. You know?"

"Yeah, I understand. Okay, well Bells, maybe this is different. I'm not trying to say that you should trust this guy if you don't think you should, but maybe you saw something with this guy – what did you say his name was? Edward? – that you didn't see with Josh. I mean, me and Rosie has sex the second date, and that isn't too different."

I nodded. "He is different than Josh. Much different. He's kinder, and sweeter," I smiled.

"Well, there is that to think of. And Bells? You are anything but a slut. Do you regret it?" he asked.

I thought about it for a bit. "I did when I woke up. And yeah, I kind of do now. But I'm really just mostly confused."

"I understand. Hey, I think Rose wants to talk to you."

I laughed. I could only imagine Rose's facial expression after only hearing Emmett's side of the conversation. "Okay. Put her on."

"Okay. I love you, Bells. I hope you know that."

I smiled. "I do. Thank you Em, I love you too."

I heard him pass the phone to Rose and about 0.7 seconds later Rose was yelling, "Holy shit, Bella! What is this I'm hearing about condoms and the morning after pill? What the hell happened?"

So I explained everything I did to Emmett, except with fewer profanities and more details about the restaurant and the beginning at the beach. I didn't share any sex details though, because I was still trying to process it all.

She was silent for a bit, obviously trying to understand what I was saying.

"Was he any good?" she asked.

Her question surprised me, making me laugh even though some tears were falling, "What?"

"Well, I can either say something reassuring, I can freak out, or I can be all girly about how you finally got laid. But Emmett pretty much covered everything reassuring, I don't want to freak you because I know that would freak you out, so that leaves girly. Plus, I really want to know."

I laughed at her explanation. "Well, um, yes. He was very good actually."

She giggled. "How many times did you do it?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

She gasped and laughed, "Oh my gosh. Guess?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say around ... 5 or six times."

She gasped and laughed from the other end. "Holy shit Bells, you didn't get laid, you got _laaaaid."_

I laughed quietly and responded, "Yeah, I guess I did."

I could hear her sigh happily from the other end and then she said, "I love you, too, Bells."

I smiled, thankful for her calm voice and the fact that the tears had stopped, "Yeah, I know. I love you too."

"Okay good. Hey, I think Jasper wants to talk to you."

I bit my lip. "Okay, put him on."

"Okay. Bye Bella!"

"Talk to you later, Rose."

I heard her pass the phone.

"Bella?"

"Hey Jas."

"So, what's this I hear about you finally getting laid again?" he teased, making me chuckle.

Jasper was the only person I had sex with before Edward, and all three of them knew it. Rose and Em had sex almost daily, so there was never any question with them. Jasper had drunk sex one or two times at parties, plus up until about 5 months ago he had been going steady with this other girl, Maria. I was the only one at of the four of us who had been going sexless the past two years.

"Yeah, it's true," I responded.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

If there was any person of the three of them I would tell that I was actually internally screaming and nervous as fuck about what might happen, it was Jasper. He was very good at keeping his emotions in check, so I knew that if I shared it with him, the other two in the same room as him, no doubt staring at him, wouldn't have a clue I lied to them. His facial expression wouldn't change. But, I didn't want to burden him with my nerves, because I also knew that, of the three of the, he would be the one to always have my worries on his mind. That's one of the things I love most about Jasper. While he's flirty and funny and sarcastic, he also has a serious side, and cares deeply about those close to him. So, I lied to him, too. I kept my voice steady so he couldn't hear any doubt.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Everything's going to be fine, I know that now."

At least that was part of the truth.

"Well, that's good. Are you going to see him again?"

I hadn't even thought about that, to be honest.

"Yeah," I decided. "I can't just never talk to him again after what happened. I have to set things straight, once I know what I want to have happen."

"That's smart, yeah."

I was about to respond when I heard a knock at my front door.

"Hold on a sec, Jas, there's someone at my door," I told him, getting out of my bed.

"Yeah, sure."

I quickly adjusted my hair, put some sweat pants on, and made my way down the stairs, to the door.

"Edward?" I asked incredulously, opening the front door wide. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi. I brought coffee and a hot chocolate for you, since you don't like coffee. But I also bought a few black coffees, with a bunch of little sugar and cream packets, to try and see if I can convince you to like it, like I said I would," he stammered, pushing the sunglasses he had over his eyes up onto the top of his head. He was obviously just as nervous about this as I was.

I stepped aside. "Okay, come on in."

"Is that him?" I heard Jasper ask.

"Yeah it is," I answered him, closing the door.

Edward looked back at me, not sure if I was talking to him or not, but turned back around when he saw I was on the phone.

"Can I talk to him?"

I pursed my lips. "I don't know."

I didn't want to scare off Edward before we had a chance to talk. While I wasn't 100% sure if I was clean after not using a condom, I was pretty sure Edward wasn't a bad guy, and I didn't want Jasper to say something that might make Edward leave.

"Please, I'll be quick."

"Be nice."

"Aren't I always?"

I looked at Edward. "Jasper, my friend from back home, wants to talk to you for a second."

He looked confused, but took the phone anyway.

"Hello?"

I couldn't hear what Jasper was saying.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Edward ... Oh, okay ... Oh, you did? ... Why's that? ... I'm not- ... What is it? "he looked upset, " ... Yes, I do too ... Okay ... I understand ... I will ... Okay ... I wouldn't expect anything less," he smiled, "... I do ... It's too early to say" he pursed his lips," ... I could, yes ... Of course ... Okay, here she is ... It was nice talking with you too," and then he handed the phone back to me.

"Jasper?"

"Hey Bells," he greeted, his voice not giving anything he might've just said away.

"What did you say?"

"I was just letting him know he's not allowed to screw around with you because if he hurts you, I'll hurt him."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, Jas. I should go."

"Okay, Bells. Love you."

"Love you, too."

And then we both hung up our phones.

"Good morning!" Edward smiled from his spot on my couch.

"Hey." I greeted wearily.

"I thought that, after last night, you might want to talk things over. I have a younger sister, and if there's one thing I know girls are good at, it's over thinking things. I just wanted to see if you changed your mind about anything," he explained.

I smiled warmly at him as I sat down on the couch by him. Grabbing my hot chocolate, I leaned back and said, "Thanks."

"Anytime." I could tell he meant it.

"I want to get checked," I said, surprising him.

"Checked in what way?" he asked, sounding confused

"For any diseases."

His smiled dropped a little. "Yeah, sure, okay. I, um, know a doctor we could see," he looked down, "we can go anytime, whenever you're ready."

"Okay," I nodded, "thank you."

We sat in silence for a bit and then I said, "To be honest, I don't know how to think about what happened last night."

"Why not?" he asked, still not looking at me.

"It was our first date, and we had sex," I took a moment to realise how the way I was referring to it now was how he referred to it last night, and I still didn't like how it sounded. I guess some things don't change. "I haven't had sex with anyone in two years before last night. I'm not used to doing it on the first date. And I just met you a few days ago!" I exclaimed.

"I understand," he nodded, now looking at me. "Really, I do. I just, I don't want you to think that I was using you. I'm not some weird creep that just does stuff like this. Honest. I really would be interested in having an actual relationship with you, even if it is just for the summer. I like you, Bella," he smiled.

I smiled back. "I like you, too."

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. So, any regrets? Be honest."

I thought about it, and answered as honestly as I could. "Yes and no. I do like you, so the main thing I regret is that it happened too soon. But, at the same time, it feels nice having gotten that out of the way, kinda. You know? Like, I always hear sex is awkward the first time with couples, but we don't have to worry about that now. Do you regret it?"

He shook his head. "No, not at all. Maybe I wish we could've waited a bit, but I don't really regret it, no."

I smiled, glad he sounded like he was being honest.

"Can I kiss you?" he whispered as he slowly leaned his head towards mine.

I nodded, and then he brought his lips to mine.

It wasn't the kind of kiss we had last night; it was short and sweet and left a smile on my face when we both pulled away.

"So," Edward started, sitting upright and facing the coffee table, "time to convince you to like coffee."

I laughed and shook my head in amusement, "Okay."

He started out by letting me sip his coffee which has two sugar and two cream.

I shook my head, a look of disgust on my face, "Too sweet."

He looked shocked, "And hot chocolate isn't?"

I smacked his arm jokingly and shook my head.

"Okay, so next is two cream and one sugar."

We spent the next 10 to 15 minutes experimenting with different ingredients in coffee. Everything he gave me was either too sweet or too bitter. I had no idea why he was trying so hard; I don't like coffee.

"So, there's two left. The only one we have left to try is one sugar. Do you want to try the black coffee, just to see what that tastes like?"

I nodded my head, "Yeah, sure."

He handed me the cup of coffee, and I took a sip.

"Blech!" I coughed, not liking it.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Way too bitter," I responded, taking a sip of the water he also bought for this exact reason.

"Okay, so let's try the one with one sugar."

Edward took the little packet in his fingers, ripped the top of it off, and poured the sugar into the coffee. He took a stirring stick and mixed it all together. The color of the coffee didn't change drastically like it did when you poured milk into it. It remained a black color.

"Here you go," he smiled as he handed me the cup.

I took a careful sip of the coffee and kept it in my mouth for a few seconds longer than normal, to really get a good taste of it. I swallowed, and then smiled.

"What do you think?" Edward asked.

"It's not too bad," I responded, taking another sip.

He laughed, and nodded his head. "Good, good, I knew I could convince you to like it."

I laughed with him, "Yeah, yeah."

We sat there together on the coach and drank our coffee together.

"So," he cleared his throat, "are you still interested in us ... going out?"

He looked kind of nervous for my answer. I couldn't blame him, really, but I knew what I wanted now.

"Yes," I nodded, "I just want to kind of take it slower. Can we take a few steps back and work our way back to where we got last night?"

He smiled and nodded his head. "Yes, of course, we can take as much time as you need."

I smiled gratefully at him, and how easily he accepted what I had told him. "Thank you."

He smiled and took another sip of his coffee.

"So, when do doctor's offices open around here? Do I have to make an appointment?"

He shook his head. "No, you don't. My family doctor is always open and he isn't very busy."

I nodded my head, "Okay. When would you like to go?"

"Anytime."

I went up to get changed and fix my hair while he waited downstairs. I put on skinny jeans and a hoodie, and put my hair up in a messy pony tail. I grabbed my headphones and turned on The Dilemma by You Me At Six. I was about to walk back down the steps but then I realised I might need some sort of ID, so I got my driver's license, passport and my Medicare card.

I walked back down the stairs and saw Edward waiting at the front door with our coffees, his sunglasses on.

"Are you ready?"

I nodded my head and put on my sneakers. Pocketing my phone, I grabbed my coffee and stepped outside with Edward right behind me.

"It's not far, but we can stop and get something to eat, if you like?" he offered as he opened the passenger seat door for me.

I shook my head, "No thank you. I'm not hungry."

"Okay."

We were fairly silent during the ride there. He turned the radio on, but I was listening to the music from my phone so I wasn't paying attention.

He pulled over on the side of a road once we reached a house. Not an apartment, or even a flat like mine, this was an actual house; a huge one at that.

"Are we at his house?" I asked.

He shook his head. "It is a house, but not his. He only uses it for his practice. He has an office, but he's only there on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

He brought me around to the back of the golden colored house to a patio. We walked onto it and walked through the back screen door.

There was a desk with a secretary sitting at it to the right of the entry.

"Hey Linda," Edward greeted.

"Oh, Edward. How are things?" The older women asked, looking up from her laptop screen.

"Things aren't bad, thank you. Is Dr. Howell busy?"

"For you? Never. He actually is just finishing up with another patient right now. You can just go on in and wait. He'll see you soon."

"Thank you," Edward smiled.

We walked into another room, obviously a waiting room, and sat down. It was a square room with light green walls. There were chairs lined up against each wall, with little tables covered in magazines scattered around the room.

I saw another patient walk out, a girl in her early to mid 20s. She had long blonde and tinted sunglasses covering her eyes. She looked over at us, stopped momentarily as if she recognized one of us, but then walked out of the house without looking back or saying anything to Linda.

We waited a bit longer, and then we heard a door close and footsteps on the hardwood floor.

"Dr. Howell?" Edward called out.

A little man with even littler hair came out from a hallway and greeted Edward as if they were friends. "Mr. Edward! Oh, what a surprise! How have you been?"

Edward stood up to shake his hand, so I stood up as well.

Edward smiled gently, "Oh, I'm not too bad, how are you? How's Lucy doing?"

Dr. Howell smiled, "I'm doing great. And Lucy just finished her first year of school," he shook his head, "time flies."

Edward nodded. "It really does."

"So, what can I do for you today?" he asked, clapping his hands together.

"Bella, here, would like to be checked out," Edward voiced, placing his hand on the small of my back. I felt oddly awkward at the situation.

"Okay, well, we can just go to one of the examination rooms and we can talk further, sound good Bella?" He asked, looking at me.

I looked around the room we were in, and I saw quite a few degrees hanging up. One of which I saw was from Oxford. There were also picture frame everywhere of him with other people. Some wedding photos, photos of him on vacation and I saw one where he was with a little girl wearing a book bag and had blonde pigtails. Lucy, I thought.

"Sounds good," I smiled, stepping away from Edward comforting hand.

We walked down a hallway and into a room. It looked exactly like a doctor's office, with the examination table, a sink, and a few cabinets.

"So, Bella, you're from America?" Dr. Howell asked.

"Yes I am, born and raised." I answered, sitting on the examination table.

"And how do you know Mr. Edward?"

I was a little confused at how this was relevant, but answered anyway. "We stumbled into each other when we were both out. We just got talking."

He nodded, "I see. So, what would you like to be checked out today?"

I cleared my throat and looked into my lap. "I, um, would like to know if I have and sexual transmitted, um, diseases."

He nodded his head and answered, "Okay. Is that all?"

"I'd also like the morning after pill."

"Okay, well, can I see some identification, please?"

I got my ID out of my wallet and handed it to him.

"Okay, so I see you're 17, so I can legally prescribe it to you. I'll give you a slip and you can go down to a pharmacist to get it. And I can do the examination now.

I nodded my head, "Okay, sounds good."

"I can wait outside, but you'll need to change into this," he said as he handed me a white gown.

"Okay, thank you."

I took off all my clothes, except my bra, and neatly folded everything into a little pile. I placed it all on the table and got onto the examination table again.

A few moments later, I heard a knock on the door, and Dr. Howell ask, "Are you ready, Bella?"

"Yes."

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. I laid down on the table and put my feet in the places he told me to, exposing myself to him.

"It's going to feel a little cold," he warned.

"Okay," I responded.

We didn't try to make conversation as he examined me. I wasn't paying much attention to what he did, so it felt like hours had passed once he pulled away and said, "Okay Bella, we're done."

I closed my legs together, and sat back up.

"So, I have my own lab, so I can send you the results in about 48 hours. Is that good?" he asked.

I nodded my head. '"Yeah, that's great. Really fast."

"Okay, so I'll let you get changed now."

He stepped back outside of the room, closing the door behind him. I was grateful because I had gotten this done, and because it was now over. Stripping again, I put all my other clothes back on. I folded the gown I had been wearing and put it on the examination table.

Once I was ready, I walked out of the room, grabbing my ID. Edward and Mr. Howell were there, talking. Edward stopped though once he saw me.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Okay, Bella, so I wrote you prescription," Dr. Howell said, handing me a piece of paper, and walked over to where Linda was. "Can I have your address so I can send you the results and bill you?"

"Yeah, sure," I answered and wrote down my temporary address for him.

"No, no, just put it on my bill," Edward cut in.

"No, you can't do that. I can pay for it," I argued, handing Dr. Howell the piece of paper.

. "Yes I can, and I am. Don't worry about it, I got it, okay?"

"But-" I started, but Edward cut me off again.

"No buts, let's go," Edward laughed. "So, bill me for this, okay Dr. Howell?"

"Yes, of course, Mr. Edward," he responded, but looked shocked.

"Well, okay. Thank you Dr. Howell!" I exclaimed as Edward lightly pushed me to the backdoor.

"Bye Bella, it was nice meeting you!"

"Yeah you too!"

Edward and I walked back around the house to his car. I got in without waiting for him to open the door for me.

"You didn't have to pay, you know."

"A simple 'thank you' would suffice," he teased.

I smiled. "Thank you Edward."

"Want to go get the prescription?"

"Yeah, sure."

We drove together, again in silence, to the pharmacy. He held my hand like he did last night, and rubbed circles onto the back of it using his thumb. She's So High by Tal Bachman was playing on the radio.

In this moment, despite how nervous I was this morning and how I regretted it, I was happy.

Right now, I was so happy and felt so high up, that I felt like nothing could stop me. I felt invincible.

I felt like everything would end up being okay with Edward and me.

What I should have realised is that the higher up you feel, the farther you fall, and the harder you crash.

**Omg, look at me guys! Two chapters in one week! I'm proud to be honest. So this chapter was basically just meant to show how she did end up regretting what happened, because she does have a conscience, how much she does rely on her friends back home, how much her friends back at home care for her, and also to show that her and Edward would be okay.**

**I hope you guys like it. I'm trying really hard to get chapters out more often. Let me know what you guys think.**

**Love you**

**~Bailey**


	9. Enchanted

There was no one at the pharmacist, luckily, so the wait wasn't very long. Edward did keep his sunglasses on, though, which confused me. He took them off when we got to Dr. Howell's office, but he didn't bother taking them off when we walked into the pharmacy office. Because he walked a few steps in front of me, to lead me to the counter, I continued to listen to my music, bopping my head to the beat of Any Other Way by We the Kings. Since arriving in London, I had become good at stopping myself from dancing to myself while walking around. I couldn't however, stop myself from mildly moving to the beat because it was one of my favorite songs.

Edward pointed the counter out to me, making me halt my movement. He had a very amused smile on his face as I walked past him to the counter. Once there I leaned over the counter to get the attention of the younger women working.

"Prescription for Isabella Swan," I told the 20-something-year-old pharmacist, handing her the slip of paper Dr. Howell had given me.

"Okay, let me go find it," she responded, sounding bored, and looking at Edward a bit too long for my liking.

"Okay, thanks."

She flipped her sleek black hair over her shoulder before turning around to go find my prescription.

Edward was leaning against the wall by the counter, so I went to stand by him. I couldn't tell where he was staring because of his glasses, which made me feel frustrated.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

He didn't move his head. "You."

I blushed and breathed out a laugh. "Oh, are you?"

He shifted his weight and brought his arm around to pull me closer to him by my waist. "Yeah I am. So, when do you want to do some touristy stuff?"

I shrugged, leaning my head on his chest. "Doesn't matter to me. I have no plans, so whenever you're free."

"Sounds good. Hey, I didn't know your full name was Isabella."

"Yeah, but I only like Bella."

"Whys that?"

I shrugged. "I've always thought Isabella sounded kind of, I don't know, old. Bella is just me."

He was about to respond when I saw the pharmacist come back to the counter, so I stepped out of Edward's arms to go get my prescription.

"Here you go," she smiled, handing it to me, and kept her eyes straight on Edward.

"Thanks," I said, and was about to hand her my debit card, when Edward snaked his arm around me to hand the lady his credit card.

"Here, put it on this."

The card was grabbed from his hand before I could protest. I saw the young women inspect, obviously looking for a name.

I turned to look at him. "Why are you paying for all of this?"

"Because I can," he answered simply, smirking.

"I can pay too, you know."

"I know you can, but so can I."

I was about to argue again when the lady announced that she had already ran it on his card, and she needed him to confirm the purchase.

I stepped out of the way to let Edward pay, and I saw the pharmacist push out her chest a little bit more and lean closer to him.

"I'm Aaron," she breathed, trying to sound seductive. I huffed in anger because it worked.

"Hey," Edward said, still looking at the screen to confirm his purchase.

"So - Edward is it? - what do you do?"

"I go to school." The boredom in his voice made me almost laugh, but Aaron didn't seem fazed by it, so she kept on going.

"It's very nice of you to pay for your sister's prescription. Teens, huh? Always doing reckless things. So immature and making stupid choices. It would be a shame for someone so young to become pregnant. I mean, what would your parents think? It'd be so disappointing for them," she said smiling condescending in my direction momentarily, before looking back at Edward wish a flirty smile, batting her eyelashes.

I made a little gasping noise, flushed in embarrassment and turned away. I tried to ignore her and concentrate on Taylor Swift's song Enchanted that was playing in my ears.

Out of the corner of my eye, to my right, I saw Edward snap his head up to look at her and spit out, "_Excuse me?"_

His harsh tone surprised me and caused me to look over at them. Edward still had his sunglasses on, but you could tell by the way that his jaw clenched that he was angry. Aaron looked just as shocked as I felt by his outburst, and leaned back slightly.

"I-I just mean, her pill. And she's so young, hardly capable of raising a child. One night stands are-" she didn't get to finish because Edward cut her off.

"_Listen here. _You don't get to _assume_ things. You don't get to _comment_ on anything. And you _certainly_ don't have the _right_ to say whether or not she'd be fit to raise a child. She's not my _sister,_ and I'm paying because I'm the reason she has to _take_ it. So stop criticising her, let me pay, and shut your goddamned mouth before I file a complaint to your boss. _Am I understood?_"

_Oh damn._ That was hot. I had no idea why, but the idea that Edward was standing up for me, plus with the way his jaw clenched and body tightened ever so slightly in defense, I felt a chill run down my spine. And it was most definitely not from the cold.

Even with his sunglasses on, you could tell he was staring right at her, glaring most likely. She flinched back, and nodded her head. "Y-yes sir. Very understood. I'm very sorry."

The transaction was complete, so she ripped out the receipt and handed it to Edward. "Have a nice day."

He didn't respond to her. After snatching the receipt from her hand, he walked over to me. Placing his arm around my shoulders and hugging my close, we walked out to his car together.

Once we were both buckled in, he said, "I'm sorry about that. I was kind of harsh, I know. She was just being so _arrogant, _and I just hated the way she-."

I cut him off by kissing his lips. "It's okay."

I leaned back into my chair and smiled at him.

He smiled back, but the car into reverse, and pulled out of the parking lot.

"So, do you just want to go back to your place?" Edward asked.

"Yeah. I need to take this with water, and then I'm going to get ready and head over to Ginny's."

He nodded as he turned a corner. "Okay. I'll call you sometime, okay? I might be busy the next few days. My sister's coming over tonight with my cousin so we can talk about her wedding."

"Your sister's getting married?" I asked.

"No, my cousin, Kate, is. It's in a few weeks and she's kind of freaking out."

"Oh, okay. Well, let me know when you're available and wanting," I smiled as he pulled to the curb beside my flat.

"I will, but trust me Bella, I'm always wanting," he looked over at me with a flirty smile that left me blushing and without words.

At this time we were already pulling to the curb by where my loft was, so Edward leaned over the center console to kiss me on the cheek. "Bye Bella."

"Bye, talk to you later."

I grabbed my prescription and my bag and got out of the car, closing it lightly behind me. The prescription was in a small paper bag Aaron had placed it in, and it was mocking me. Once inside, I went to over to the kitchen, placed the bag on the counter and my I threw my purse towards the coach, but it landed on the floor with a thud. I grabbed a glass and filled it a little under halfway filled with tap water.

I stared at the bag.

I never thought that I would be the type of person who would have to take a morning after pill at only 17 years of age.

Not that there is a "type of person" who takes the pill, but I never thought I would have to. I never thought I would manage to find a guy who would have sex with me before I graduated high school after what happened with Josh.

I continued staring at the bag.

Taking a deep breath, I grew a pair and took the pill out of the bag A little prayer ran through head that if I was pregnant, this would work, and then put it in my mouth. It tasted weird so I quickly downed all the water with the pill.

I coughed and closed my eyes in shame.

I felt bad that I was ashamed that I had to take it. Rose had to take it once or twice or 12 times in her 2 year relationship with Emmett when they saw that their condom broke. But my parents always told me that sex was for marriage and condoms were for sex.

I took a few deep breaths and told myself that it would all be okay now, and my parents never had to know about this. They had me in high school, so I'm sure they'd understand, but they always had really high expectations of me. The last thing I wanted to do, now especially, was disappoint them when it came to my future. After being contacted by the few colleges who had heard of me, they now had their eyes on the prize. That prize was me going to a good school, for little to no money, getting a great job, and giving them a million grandkids because I was their only supplier.

The biggest way to fuck all that up would be to get pregnant before I even graduated high school.

Pushing all of this out my mind for the moment, and trying not to over think, I went up to my room to sleep.

Xoxoxox

I didn't hear from Edward for more than two weeks after we went to the doctor and pharmacist.

That's not true. He came by the boys' house once to stay for supper a few nights night after we went, and all eleven of us – me, Edward, the five roommates, and the four girlfriends - sat at their dining room table and ate chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots. We had a good time, but since then Edward's been MIA. He warned me that his cousin would be keeping him around lots for the wedding, because she was nervous, but I would have expected to hear from him sooner.

One Saturday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the living room of Harry and the boys' house, staring at my phone.

"A watched phone never rings," I heard from behind me.

Startled, I snapped my head around to see Alex standing there.

"Oh, yeah, I guess" I mumbled awkwardly, embarrassed.

"Who are you waiting to call?" He asked, coming down to sit by me.

I shrugged, feeling my face go red, "Edward."

He nodded as if understanding me. "When was the last time you heard from him?"

"When he came over to eat here."

He leaned back further into the couch, and quickly took my phone from where I had it on my leg.

"Hey!" I reached over to get it from him, but he sat on it.

"You need to get him off your mind. You've been sitting here all afternoon just staring at it, and you need to stop."

I sighed and leaned back with him. "Yeah, okay."

Wow, I sounded pathetic.

"So, what's up?"

I laughed, "Nothing, you?"

"Notta."

"Where is everyone?" I asked, just realising that the room was empty besides the two of us.

"Gone. Ginny's working, Lindsey's with her folks, Harry and Louis went to get food, Chuck's with Kelsey, and Jeff's with Lana. It's just us here."

"I see."

We sat in silence for a bit before he said, "Why don't you tell me why you look so distressed?"

I looked over at him and smiled sheepishly. "Is it that obvious?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

Pursing my lips, I went through my thoughts to see what was actually on my mind. There were thoughts of Edward, my friends back at home and how missed them, my parents and the realisation that this is longest I've gone without them. There was also thoughts of how this trip and affected me as a person, I felt, even after a relatively short time.

"I feel like I'm acting so different than normal." I said.

"In what way?"

"I don't even know. It's just, back home I have, like, 4 friends at the most and that's all, because I hate trying to talk to people. But here, in less than a week, I met you 5, Ginny, Lana, Kelsey, Lindsey, and Edward. It's insane."

"Well, maybe that's a good thing," he smiled, nudging my shoulder with his.

"Yeah, I guess, I'm just not used to ... having so many people around."

"Do you not like that we're around?"

"What? No, it's not that, I just used to hate having to meet new people, and now it's, like, no big deal. So many people have come into my life in so little time."

"It just sounds like, to me, you're growing. Change isn't always bad, you know," he teased.

I laughed, "I guess. My mom always did want me to have more friends." I looked over at Alex. "And now I guess I do."

He smiled and nodded. "Yes, you do."

"I'm just worried, though."

"About what?"

I pursed my lips. "About when I leave, how that will make me feel. I've been almost a month, and I feel really close with you guys, all of you. I'm really going to miss you all when I have to go."

"Well, we can always talk. We can text and have giant Skype dates where we sit around our laptops and fill each other in on our lives."

I laughed at his suggestion, and smiled at the thoughtfulness behind it.

"How else do you feel you act differently?" he asked kindly.

"I don't know, feel different. Like, I feel that my thoughts have changed a lot in the time that I've been here."

"And do you feel like they changed in a good way?"

I pursed my lips, and thought about it. Back at home, I had negative thoughts towards almost everyone except my family and the few people I could call my friends. Also, there was Josh, who I saw almost all the time in our small town, and was a constant reminder of a failed attempt at getting close to someone. And then just being in my house often reminded me about how I used to be. Sad, lonely, upset. That past me was gone now, I knew. But there were reminders of her all around me when I was home, where I spent most of my time. I volunteered and played sports, but I felt like that didn't really count as interaction. Swimming and surfing were solo sports, I didn't really have to talk to people at the library because all I did was shelf book, and I only really conversed with elders at the homeless shelter.

Here, though, I was free, in every sense of the word. My parents weren't here, constantly checking up on me. Bitches at school weren't here to make me feel down. Josh wasn't here. Instead there was Edward. The thought of him made me smile, even though I was confused as to why he didn't call. He was so understanding, and kind. I had Ginny, Harry, Alex, Lindsey, Louis, Jeff, Lana, Chuck, and Kelsey here too. I had no bad memories here. My test results came back from Dr. Howell and I was 100% clean of all diseases and I wasn't pregnant, so all bad thoughts of that night diminished except for my wishing we had waited. And even though he hasn't called, I hadn't been over thinking as much as I would if I was back at home. I didn't know why exactly, but I was happier here. I was happy at home, but the amount of stress at home had such a big impact that I didn't even know was there until I came here.

Once I had my answer, I filled the silence by saying, "Yes."

Alex smiled. "Well, there you go. Sometimes you just have to get out of your comfort zone to figure out what makes you the happiest. I've heard that traveling can help you figure out who you really are, as well."

I nodded my head, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Oh, sweetie, I'm always right," he joked.

I smiled. "Oh, really?"

"Yup," he popped his p.

I was about so say something when he made a weird face and reached out to get something under him. He took out my phone, looked at it and then smirked at me.

"And, what did I say about how a watched phone never rings?"

"Oh, whatever, just give it to me," I laughed and reached over to take my phone from him.

"I'll let you take it, see you later Bella," Alex said as he left the room.

"Thanks, see you!"

I pressed talk on my vibrated phone and answered. "Hello?"

"Bella!"

I slouched my shoulders in disappointment.

"Hi mom."

"Oh, how's my baby doing?"

"I'm fine, mom. How are you?"

"Oh, that's great. I'm okay thanks. What have you been up to?" I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Oh, not much, just chilling, walking around, seeing things."

"Have you met anyone?"

"A few people, yeah."

"Any boys?" she asked, obviously implying she wanted to know if I met anyone I liked.

"A few friends yeah."

"Oh, that's good. I was just about to head out and realised I haven't talked to you since last week, so I thought I'd call to catch up. I've got to go, though, dear."

"Okay, mom, I love you."

"Oh, I love you too, sweetie. I miss you."

"Miss you too, talk to you soon, okay?"

"Okay hun, bye!"

"Bye mom!"

I hung up my phone. I loved my mom, and I love talking to her, but she always seemed like she's in a rush when she calls.

I slouched further back into the couch and closed my eyes.

My phone vibrated again in my hand.

I pressed the talk button, sat up straight in excitement, and quickly brought it up to me ear without looking to see if I knew the number.

"Hello?"

"It's just me again, Bella."

I slouched, again.

"Hi mom."

"I just forgot to say something."

Because she was always in a rush, she always forgot to say at least three things, resulting in her calling me back at least once more.

"What was it?"

"Your father's gotten really busy here at work, so I don't know when he's going to get the chance to call you. But he passes on his love!"

"Okay, well, tell him I love him too," I smiled.

"Oh, I will. So, I'll talk to you later. Love you!"

"Love you too, mom. Bye."

"Bye bye."

I hung up the phone again and leaned my head on the back of the couch. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, realising that I'm starving.

My phone vibrated.

Thinking my mom forgot something else, I picked it up without opening my eyes and greeted her by saying, "Yes?"

"Bella?"

My eyes flashed open and I sat up straight. That wasn't mom.

"Edward?"

"Hey Bella."

"Oh, hey, sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"That's okay. I'm really sorry I haven't called you recently like I said I would. My cousin's just been keeping me on my toes about this wedding. Half the time I was free I figured you would be asleep and I didn't want to wake you, and then the other half my phone would be dead."

I smiled, "Oh, it's okay. What has she been getting you to do?"

"Just random stuff. Checking flower orders, checking flights, all that kind of stuff. Half of her family is from Ireland, so I needed to make sure they were all still coming. And then when they got here, I needed to go and greet them all, with her, at their hotels. It's ridiculous, but I know she's really nervous about it."

"Well, that's sweet of you."

"Thanks, but I'm free now and will be until tonight, because we have the dress rehearsal. The wedding's in two Fridays, so she should be totally and completely on edge all day today. Should be fun. Do you want to do something today?"

"Yeah, sure, like what?"

"Well, I haven't eaten yet so would you like to go out and grab something we can have?"

"Sounds good! Where do you want me to meet you?"

"I can just come and get you, it's okay."

"I'm not at my flat right now."

"Oh, okay. Do you have a drive?"

I thought about calling Fredrick, the driver my parents had allowed me to have while I was here, because he had driven me to Ginny's and Harry's and back lots, but then I realised Alex was here, so he could drive me.

"Yup."

"Okay."

Edward gave me the street name of where to meet him, and then the name of a little lunch cafe he liked.

"I'll see you there," I said.

"Bye Bella."

I hung the phone and had a huge smile on my face. Who knew I would end up being the type of girl who would feel giddy after a phone call.

The location that Edward gave me was still in my head, so I typed it into my notes so I wouldn't forget it.

"Alex?" I called out, getting off the couch to go to the foot of the stairs.

"Yeah?" he asked a second later as he stepped outside of his room into the hallway so I could see him.

"Can you drive me somewhere?"

He smirked. "Did Edward call?"

I nodded, blushing.

He chuckled, "Yeah, sure, let me grab my keys."

I made my way outside to wait by his car and not too long after Alex came outside. He unlocked the doors and I got in on the passenger's side, which I was still trying to get used to because it was the opposite side as in the States.

"Where are we going?" he asked as he backed out of his driveway.

I took out my phone to check the address, and told him what it was.

He seemed to know where we were heading, so he drove along the road with ease.

"Is it serious between you two?" Alex asked as he made a turn.

I turned my attention away from the lofts we were passing outside look at him. "What do you mean by serious?"

"Like, do you think it will last past the summer?"

I frowned, remembering where my thoughts had gone after Edward and I had sex. Back then, I told myself that it would only be the summer, and I was okay with that. I was not only okay, but glad. Now though, I wasn't sure. I knew there was no logical way it could last, but I wasn't sure how accepting I'd be of that in August when it was time for me to go home. I'd been trying not to, but I had been spending a lot of time looking at my calendar on my phone. I knew that I had exactly 28 days left here. A little under a month. Hardly enough time.

"There's no way it can."

"I'm sure you could make it work if you wanted it to."

"It's not that simple. Edward's going to college in the fall. I'm going to be a senior at the end of August. His life is here, and mine's in Washington. I couldn't expect him to just up and visit me whenever I missed him, just like I wouldn't expect him to ask me."

"What about when you're done high school? You could come to a school here," Alex declared, a smile on his face.

I looked out the front window of the car, staring at the buildings we passed.

"I already have colleges wanting me at their school. Local ones are offering me a free ride, and I'm not even in my senior year yet. That's huge. I can't just turn that stuff down because I want to spend time with a guy. "

"Holy shit. You a genius or something? I could barely get a scholarship."

"No, but I do have a lot of time to study, because I have almost no friends. So, yeah, I'm to stay in the states and Edward is to stay here. It's just a summer thing."

"I hope you don't get hurt at the end of all of this."

As Alex finished saying this he pulled over to the side of the road. I look out my window and saw Edward standing outside of a building. When he saw me and smiled and waved, his sunglasses covering the expression in eyes though.

I waved back, but looked over at Alex again.

"What do you mean, how could I get hurt?"

He took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. "I live with 4 guys I've known my whole life, so I've seen my fair share of romances that go down the drain, as well as ones that I've experienced. I've seen summer romances that were tried to make last, and I've seen some that ending pleasantly, like most people intend. What I also see is how the three that are in committed relationships now act with their significant other. The difference in how they act now, and how they were with other summer flings is so different, there's hardly any comparison."

He sighed again and smiled sadly, although I don't know why. "You and Edward don't act like you're in some summer fling that will end pleasantly."

"How so?"

"There's too much of a connection between you two. The way you guys act is similar to how Ginny acts with Harry, Kelsey acts with Chuck, and Lana acts with Jeff. The way Edward looks at you is the way I look at Lindsey, and the way you look at him is the way Lindsey looks at me."

"How do I look at him?" I whispered curiosity clear in my voice.

"I don't even know how to explain it exactly, almost like you're enchanted by everything he says. That you can't get enough of him."

"But how would you know? You only saw us actually together that one time we all ate together."

"Maybe that's enough to tell. He couldn't take his eyes off of you practically all night."

I looked over at Edward again, and even though he was wearing sunglasses I could see he was confused as to why I was still talking to Alex. Holding up one finger for him to see, I motioned that I'd be only one more minute.

"What are you talking about?" I asked Alex.

"You don't have to take my word for it, but that way I see it is that there are only two possible ways this thing with you and Edward can end."

"What are they?"

He pursed his lips, not looking me in the eye.

"You could not end it, and try to make it last, which I could definitely see happening. But you think that won't work, so that leaves only one other way."

He stopped, so I impatiently motioned for him to keep going.

"You leave, he stays here, and both your hearts get broken in the process."

I was taken aback at his response. "What makes you think that?"

"Like I said before, your connection in more than just a summer thing," he nodded his head towards Edward who was still waiting for me. "I can see it on his face right now, how much he cares for you, and I could hear it in your voice the first night you two talked when we went camping, remember?"

I didn't do or say anything as I tried to take everything he was saying.

"If he doesn't already, before you leave that guy over there will fall in love with you. I could easily see that happening with you as well, if not already. You don't seem the type to walk away from love easily."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"I don't want to see you get hurt at the end of this. Neither of you deserve that."

"But if what you're saying is true, what other way is there?"

He was silent for a few moments before he said, "Maybe I'm hoping you guys will work out in the end."

I looked over at him again and I saw nothing but sincere care in his eye. "You should go, before he comes over here and get s mad at me for taking up your time."

"Alright."

"Text me if you need me to come and get me, okay?" Alex asked.

I nodded my head, thanked him for the drive, and got out of the car.

Why the hell would he tell me all of this right before I went to spend time with Edward? If I was being honest, a part of me agreed with what Alex said. But another part of me, a bigger part, was too selfish and needy and wanted to have Edward, regardless of the consequences.

"Hey Bella, what took so long?" Edward asked kindly once I got over to him.

The way his arms pulled me into a hug made me forget everything with Alex momentarily.

"He was just telling me that he would just be waiting at home if I needed a drive, so I could call him.

I could see once I pulled away that he didn't completely believe me, but he let it go and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, leading me down the sidewalk.

"Okay, c'mon this way. We're going to a place I like for lunch."

As I looked up at Edward who walked beside me, I couldn't help but let that selfish part of me take over for the time being. Edward and I had something, and even though I didn't know what it was, I was willing to find out. Consequences be damned.

**Soo sorry for the delay lovelies. **

**I really hope you like this chapter omg.**

**Tell me if you have any idea for what could happen.**

**The next chapter will be their date plus maybe even something else I think you guys will like. I have no idea when I'll be updating next but I really hope it's soon. I'll be away for about a week starting th 27****th**** of July. I hope to have at least one update before then.**

**If I don't I promise you you'll get an extra long update when I get back, but I doubt I won't.**

**I hope you are all enjoying your summer, and as for those in Australia, I'm sorry you have gone back to school.**

**Love you guys**

**~Bailey**


End file.
